ROCK HILL, SC—Winthrop men's basketball will wrap-up a stretch of 6-out-of-7 games on the road when it travels to Statesboro, GA Saturday afternoon to take on Georgia Southern.

GAME SNAPSHOT 
Winthrop (6-3) at Georgia Southern (3-5)
Game Time: 4 p.m. EST / Site: Statesboro, GA (Hanner Fieldhouse)
Live Video: Georgia Southern Sports Network Television: none / Audio: 104.1 The Bridge (pregame 3:30 p.m. with Dave Friedman/Mike Pacheco)
Live Stats / Live Video / Live Audio

SERIES HISTORY
This is just the third meeting all-time as Winthrop has won the only two meetings. The two teams met in back-to-back seasons starting with the first contest on Dec. 2, 1999 in Statesboro, GA with an 80-72 victory for Winthrop. The next season Winthrop earned a 73-58 win at the Winthrop Coliseum. Georgia Southern is a member of the Sun Belt Conference and this is going to be the first time Winthrop has face an opponent that is a current member of the Sun Belt Conference.

ROAD BLOCK
It was announced before the Alabama game that redshirt-sophomore Duby Okeke would be sidelined 3-5 weeks with a wrist injury. The 6-8 center has been a huge defensive presence for the Eagles this season averaging 3.5 blocks off the bench. His 3.5 bpg ranks fourth in the nation and he was on pace to shatter the single-season block record at Winthrop. Prior to his injury, Okeke accounted for 28 of the team's 46 blocks on the season (61%).

THE MATCHUP
Both teams are coming off losses on the road against Power 5 opponents and looking to end two-game skids. Winthrop is coming off a season-low 60 points in the loss at Alabama but is still averaging over 80 ppg (80.8). Winthrop is averaging 8.0 three-pointers made per game and rank 29^th in the nation in free throw percentage at .747. Georgia Southern has also been a high scoring team this season averaging 82.5 ppg shooting 41 percent from the field and 36 percent behind the arc. Each team has a positive rebounding margin and are allowing nearly the same amount of points per game. Winthrop is allowing 78.3 ppg while Georgia Southern is allowing 78.1.
 
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Keon Johnson scored 25 points in the loss at Alabama, which is his second straight game scoring 20 or more points. He's reached the 20-point plateau four times this season, which have happened in the last six games. Despite going 2-for-10 behind the arc the last two games, he's still reached 20 points as he's 16-for-31 from the field and 12-for-12 at the foul line. In the last five games he's averaging 21.2 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.1 assists. Tookie Brown leads GSU in scoring at 15.1 per game and leads a trio of three players in double-figures. The freshman guard has scored in double-figures the last six games, including 20 in the loss at Duke on Dec. 15. He scored a career-high 26 points versus The Citadel.

THE COACHES
Pat Kelsey is in his fourth season at the helm of the Winthrop men's basketball program. He holds a record of 59-45 in four seasons with appearances in the Big South championship game the past two seasons. The Eagles are 30-22 in Big South games under Kelsey. During his tenure the team has a couple of the program's notable victories with wins at Clemson and Auburn. It is the first head coaching job for Kelsey and he's the sixth head coach in the program's history. Mark Byington is in his third season with Georgia Southern and is 40-33 (47-37 in career) in that time. He has four years of collegiate head coaching experience as he began his career at the College of Charleston after being named the interim coach to finish the 2011-12 season.

MILESTONES
Johnson passed 900 career points in the game at Georgia and is four made threes away from cracking the program's all-time Top 10. He's on pace to surpass 1,000 career points this season, potentially before the end of 2015 with five games remaining. Johnson is also among the top free throw shooters in the history of the program as he's currently shooting .847 in his career, which ranks third all-time. He is 19 made free throws away from cracking the all-time Top 10. Duby Okeke was on a record pace for blocked shots in a single-season before suffering a wrist injury at Georgia. Okeke had three blocks at Georgia and has multiple-blocks in all eight games played. He's recorded 20 blocks in his last five games. In eight games he's blocked 28 shots (3.5 bpg) and the program record for blocks in a season is 66 by Josh Grant in 2002-03. Okeke has 74 career blocks and Xavier Cooks has 57. They are both on pace to crack the program's career Top 10 list as Eddie Gay and Heson Groves sit at 10^th with 76. Billy Houston is the all-time leader in career blocks with 139. Okeke is currently ranked 4^th nationally in blocks per game.