On its road to a .500 record, Georgia Southern University men’s basketball will try to get its season going when the team travels to South Carolina State University on Saturday.

The Eagles (3-5) have been dependent on junior guard Jelani Hewitt and senior guard Tre Bussey to score points this year. And if the duo plays like they have so far this season, then GSU should walk away with a win against the low-scoring Bulldogs (2-6).

But if Hewitt and Bussey, the only players on the team averaging double digit points per game, have off nights from the floor then this is either team’s game.

Before Wednesday’s game, the pair combined to average 45.6 points per game. The team averaged 80.6 points per game.

GSU is getting very little offensive productivity from the big men on the floor and this disparity in scoring has hurt the Eagles.

This is not the case for the Bulldogs. The team’s leading scorer is 6’11 senior forward Matthew Hezekiah. How GSU’s 6’7 senior forward Marvin Baynham will match up defensively against the near seven-footer will be the question of the night. The Bulldogs will look to pound the ball down low against the undersized Eagles all game long.

The good news for GSU is that SCSU averages only 65.4 points per game.

As long as Hewitt and Bussey put up similar numbers as they have all year in addition to winning the turnover battle on Saturday, GSU should have no problem against the Bulldogs.

Going into last night’s game, each of the Eagles’ three wins came when the team had fewer turnovers than their opponents. SCSU has given the ball away 105 times in seven games, an average of 15 turnovers per game. GSU averaged 11.9 turnovers per game before last night’s win. Ball control will be a major factor in Saturday’s game.

The Eagles and the Bulldogs tip-off at 6 p.m. Saturday on the road.