Winthrop (6-3) vs. Georgia Southern (6-5)
Game Time: 11 a.m. EST / Site: Rock Hill, SC (Winthrop Coliseum)
Live Video:  Big South Network (Mike Pacheco-PxP, Bobby Stevens-Color) / Television: None / Audio: 104.1 The Bridge, pregame 10:30 a.m (Dave Friedman-PxP, Karl Lyles-Color)
Live Stats / Live Video  / Live Audio

ROCK HILL, SC—Nearly 2,500 students from Rock Hill middle and elementary schools will be in attendance when Winthrop men's basketball hosts Georgia Southern Tuesday morning at 11 a.m. as part of Winthrop's first ever "Education Day".

All five middle schools in the RHSD along with St. Anne's Catholic School and Richmond Drive Elementary will enjoy a collegiate basketball game while getting educated on bullying as well. There will be videos provided by Winthrop Athletics and S.C. Cyber played before the game as well as during the game (timeouts and halftime). All students involved will have the chance to sign a pledge not to be involved in bullying and can bring the pledge to a future basketball game and receive free admission.

The Eagles are coming off a road win at Hampton and have won two straight as they are now 6-3 on the year. The game will air on the Big South Network or fans can tune into 104.1 The Bridge with Dave Friedman calling the action.

The victory at Hampton assured the Eagles of their fifth straight season with a non-conference record of .500 or better. Winthrop has posted a non-conference winning mark in four of Pat Kelsey's five seasons with 2014-15 being the only season they were .500 (7-7). The program had gone four straight seasons with a losing record in non-conference games before Kelsey became the coach in 2012-13.

Senior Keon Johnson has been on a tear lately as he posted his third straight 20-plus game at Hampton with 24. Johnson has now scored 20 or more points in all four road games he's played in this season. He leads the team with 18.6 points per game, which ranks second in the Big South. Johnson leads the Big South in free throw percentage at 91 percent as he's 38-for-42 on the year.

In the win at Hampton the Eagles had 10 threes in the game as sophomore Bjorn Broman led the charge behind the arc when he tied his career-high of four. It was the second consecutive game the Eagles connected on at least 10 threes and the fourth time this season.

Junior Xavier Cooks is second on the team at 15.7 ppg and leads the team in rebounding at 5.8. He's coming off a seven-point performance at Hampton as he was in foul trouble. Cooks had a single-digit scoring output at Manhattan earlier this year and turned around and scored 23 points at Florida State. In four home games he has the best scoring average on the team at 19.5 while shooting 56 percent from the floor and 50 percent from three.

This will be the fourth meeting between Winthrop and Georgia Southern, who both sport the same mascot (Eagles). Winthrop has won the previous three meetings, including an 88-81 win at Georgia Southern last December.

GSU enters the game at 6-5 on the year and has also won two straight and five of the last seven contests. Offensively GSU is scoring 75 points per game led by Ike Smith's 19.8 ppg and Tookie Brown's 14.4 ppg. Smith has been in double-figures in 10-of-11 games and has hit 20-point mark six times. Brown has double-figures in 8-of-11 games and is coming off 20 points against Florida International.
Smith is shooting 51 percent from the floor and 72 percent from the foul line as he has a team-high 58 free throw attempts.

So far this season GSU is 3-4 on the road with a three-point loss at N.C. State and an eight-point loss at Akron. This will be the second Big South opponent for GSU this season as it held off Radford for a 65-64 win on a neutral court. The team has averaged 71.9 points per game on the road and is coming off wins at Florida Gulf Coast and FIU as GSU will play its third straight road game.

GSU ranks in the Top 50 in the country in fewest turnovers per game (22^nd), turnover margin (39^th) and steals per game (43^rd). Brown ranks 26^th in the country in total steals with 24 and 36^th in steals per game (2.18).