Winthrop hosts Georgia Southern at 11 a.m. Tuesday

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”.

Students from all five middle schools in the Rock Hill School District and St. Anne’s Catholic School and Richmond Drive Elementary will enjoy a college basketball game while also getting bullying prevention education. Videos provided by Winthrop athletics and S.C. Cyber will play before and during the game, and all students involved will have the chance to sign a pledge to not be involved in bullying. If they bring the pledge to a future basketball game they’ll receive free admission.

The Eagles are coming off a road victory at Hampton, the team’s second straight win.

The victory at Hampton assured the Eagles (6-3) 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 the only season the team was .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; he posted his third straight 20-plus game at Hampton, finishing with 24. Johnson has scored 20 or more points in all four road games he’s played in this season. He leads the team in scoring with 18.6 points per game, which ranks second in the Big South. Johnson leads the conference in free throw percentage (91 percent) and is 38-for-42 on the year.

This will be the fourth meeting between Winthrop and Georgia Southern. Winthrop has won the previous three meetings, including an 88-81 win at Georgia Southern last December.

Mark Byington’s Georgia Southern club enters the game at 6-5 on the year and has also won two straight games, and five of the last seven. Offensively, Georgia Southern is scoring 75 points per game, led by Ike Smith’s 19.8 points per outing and Tookie Brown’s 14.4. Smith has been in double-figures in 10 of 11 games and has hit the 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.

Georgia Southern 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 Byington’s program; it held off Radford for a 65-64 win on a neutral court.

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

This story was originally published December 19, 2016 at 3:15 PM with the headline "Winthrop hosts Georgia Southern at 11 a.m. Tuesday."