After a dominating performance at home last Saturday, the Georgia Southern University men’s basketball team hits the road today to face the West Virginia University Mountaineers.

The Eagles will be participating in the Cancun Challenge, an eight-team tournament that has been held annually for the past six years.  The Cancun Challenge features two legs comprised of eight games held in the United States and eight games in Mexico.  Each team will play three games to earn a berth in a championship game for their respective division.

“The best thing about it is that we’ll learn more about our team,” GSU head coach Mark Byington said.  “We’ll know much more about ourselves when we get back on Thanksgiving Day.”

The Eagles kick off the U.S. leg of the tournament tonight against a 2-1 West Virginia team, fresh off a victory over Duquesne University last Sunday.

The Mountaineers will be led by sophomore guard Eron Harris, who is leading the team with 22.7 points per game, as well as junior guard Juwan Staten, who is averaging 7.3 assists per game to go along with 20 points per game.

“Juwan Staten is as quick as any guard we’ll face,” Byington said.  “He’s a blur in transition, and gets to the rim and the free throw line real well.  Eron Harris has had some big games already, he’s coming off a 33 point game against Duquesne, and he can score from all over the floor.  Those guys put a lot of pressure on the defense, so hopefully we can game-plan enough to slow them down.”

The Eagles will look to counter with their own guard tandem, redshirt junior Jelani Hewitt and senior Tre Bussey.  The duo combined for 52 of the Eagles’ 104 points last Saturday.  Freshman forward Kyle Doyle will also be looking to make an impact off the bench after his 11-point performance against Toccoa Falls College.

Looking ahead, the Eagles will travel to Norfolk, Va., to take on the Monarchs of Old Dominion University before heading south of the border to face Oral Roberts University.