Georgia Southern (5-11, 1-4) returns to Hanner Fieldhouse on Thursday for the first time since their nail-biting loss to Troy on Jan. 7. Their opponent is the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (7-8), who sit at fifth in the Sun Belt Conference standings.

Going into their matchup against new conference member Coastal Carolina, the Eagles are coming off of a two-game road trip in which they defeated Louisiana-Monroe 65-44, but fell to Louisiana-Lafayette 79-52 two days later. To defeat Coastal Carolina, GS might look to the three-point line, as they make 7.1 threes per game, compared to Coastal’s 2.8 per contest.

On Saturday, rival Appalachian State makes its trip to Statesboro for the season. They were defeated by Coastal Carolina, GS’s first opponent of the week 60-55 on Saturday. The Mountaineers are only 3-6 on the road this year, which could make them vulnerable going into a rivalry game away from home.

Though these might appear as just two more games in the middle of a long conference schedule, they may tell a lot about how the Eagles will finish the year. There will only be four more home games for the Eagles after this weekend, versus six on the road, meaning the crowd will be against them more times than not moving forward. Four of their last 10 games of the season come against the top four teams in the Sun Belt standings. If GS wants to finish with a commendable record after a slow start in conference play, they will need to defeat two below .500 teams before they face tougher competition.

Tipoff for Coastal Carolina is at 7 p.m. in Hanner Fieldhouse. The Eagles welcome arch rival App. State on Saturday at 2 p.m.