GAME NOTES: Teams battling in the middle-of-the-pack in the Southern Conference meet tonight at Alumni Gym, as the George Southern Eagles travel to Elon to take on the rising Phoenix. Georgia Southern improved its conference record to 4-2 after back-to-back victories over the College of Charleston (96-90 OT) and The Citadel (73-52) last week. The wins came at a perfect time as the Eagles had just experienced a season-worst three-game losing streak. GSU finishes up a three-game road trip with Appalachian State on Saturday. After a 60-58 victory over Furman on Saturday, Elon matched its season and conference win totals from a year ago. It was just the second road victory of the year for the Phoenix, who play five straight on the road following a home match with UNC Greensboro this weekend. The Eagles and Phoenix have only met on the hardcourt nine times with Georgia Southern coming away victorious in five outings.

Georgia Southern's run-and-gun offense has allowed the Eagles to score a sound 74.0 ppg. Louis Graham has been at the forefront of the high-powered offense, leading the team with 14.3 ppg while pulling down 6.4 rpg. He netted himself a game-high 20 points against The Citadel to go along with two blocks and two steals. The three-point threat for GSU has been Willie Powers. The guard is hitting 49.1 percent from behind the arc en route to tallying 12.7 ppg. Matt Fields and Julian Allen solidify the rebounding power for the Eagles with 6.4 and 6.1 rpg, respectively.

The slow pace in which Elon runs its offensive sets has netted just 63.3 ppg. That is just fine with the Phoenix, as their defense has proven to be just a stingy in giving up just 65.4 ppg. The inside presence of Ola Atoyebi is a safety net for the Phoenix playmakers. The forward is averaging a team-high 14.3 ppg, while hovering around the conference lead with 7.0 boards a game. Brett James has played well as of late, netting 19 points and nine rebounds to improve his season average to 10.2 ppg and 4.5 rpg. Playmakers Montell Watson and Chris Long have combined to average about seven assists a ballgame thus far.

The Elon offense will likely take GSU out of its preferred fast-paced attack. However, the Eagles have too many options for the Phoenix to handle for 40 minutes.