Georgia Southern University has ended their home game stretch by sweeping rivals Georgia State and App State. The Eagles still remain fifth in the Sun Belt conference with an overall record of 14-14 and a conference record of 10-8.

The Eagles have two games remaining on their schedule before they go into conference play as they have secured a spot in the Sun Belt tournament. The lowest possible seeding they would have is seventh, if they lose their last two games and South Alabama and Georgia State win their next two. The highest possible seeding for the Eagles would be third, but they would have to win out and have Texas-Arlington and Louisiana-Lafayette lose at least once.

Texas-Arlington plays three more games this season going up against Texas State, South Alabama and Troy. Louisiana-Lafayette and the Eagles face off in the last game of the regular season for them both as they will battle it out for the fourth seed in the tournament.

The fourth seed in the tournament is so crucial for teams because it gives them a first round bye and they don’t have to play until the quarterfinals of the tournament. That gives teams extra time to prepare and rest while also relieving teams of one less game to play and possibly lose.

“We all need [the rest]. We just gotta get our rest and then we gotta refocus,” head coach Mark Byington said.

The Eagles don’t have the ability to be a top two seed like last season and not play until the semi-finals, but getting to that fourth seed in the tournament and not playing in the first round would put the Eagles a step closer to making a run in the tournament and making it into the NCAA tournament.

The Eagles will play against Louisiana Monroe and Louisiana-Lafayette away from home, but they will try to use their momentum from the last two games to propel them to victories.

“We’re getting a lot of momentum. The last two games were a big confidence builder and we’re going to need it going into this tough road trip,” sophomore guard Mike Hughes said.

The Eagles hope to stay focused and win out for the best way to get to March Madness.

“We’ve got one of the toughest road swings in the league going to Louisiana, with those two teams. We’ve positioned ourselves with 10 wins in the league already,” Byington said. “We gotta try to get a win or two down in Louisiana, keep the momentum going for the tournament and then try to get magic down there.”