As far as the Southern Conference basketball tournament is concerned, the Eagles couldn’t have hoped for better timing.
    Finally healthy, the sixth-seeded Georgia Southern men’s team ended its regular season on a roll, winning four of its last five games and three in a row, including Saturday’s 74-65 hammering of No. 3 seed College of Charleston. That’s exactly the way teams want to play this time of year, and the rest of the league has taken notice.
    “Right now, (Georgia Southern) looks like one of the most dangerous teams coming into the tournament,” Charleston coach Bobby Cremins said Monday. “They are the defending regular-season champions from last year, and they’ve got a lot of experience. If you are looking for a hot team coming into this tournament, based on recent results, it would have to be Georgia Southern.”
    Citadel coach Ed Conroy agrees. His 11th-seeded Bulldogs (7-22, 4-14) will face the Eagles (14-15, 7-11) around 8 tonight in a first-round game in Charleston, S.C.
    “They really seem like they are flowing on offense right now,” Conroy said. “(Donte) Gennie is playing extremely well, so is (Dwayne) Foreman and (Matt) Fields is giving them a lot of energy. They just seem like they’ve come together, and they are very impressive right now.”
    Georgia Southern’s overall game has improved tremendously down the stretch and the Eagles have used dominating second halves to pull away in their final three games. GSU fans are encouraged, but Eagle coach Jeff Price remains cautiously optimistic about his team’s recent performances.
    “It’s certainly a good time to be playing well,” he said. “Obviously, we need to continue to take things in perspective and understand that at any time things could go the other way. We are happy with the way we are playing right now, and hopefully we can get that momentum going.”
    The Eagles and the Bulldogs met nine days ago in Statesboro where Georgia Southern cruised to an 81-62 victory to avenge an overtime loss at The Citadel earlier this year. The Eagles hope that performance will provide a mental boost heading into tonight.
    “It gives us a lot more confidence knowing that we can beat them,” said Gennie, who scored a career-high 30 points and was 11-for-13 from the field and 6-for-6 on 3-pointers against the Bulldogs on Feb 19. “We’ve just got to come in focused and not take any teams for granted.”
    The Eagles don’t have fond memories from last year’s tournament when they were the No. 1 seed and were sent packing by eighth-seed Appalachian State after one game. Whether or not entering as sixth seed will make life easier for GSU remains to be seen, but Eagle forward Louis Graham doesn’t think a lower seed means less pressure.
    “We are Georgia Southern, and everybody plays their A-game when they play us,” said Graham, who was named the league’s player of the week Tuesday. “Bull’s eye (on our back) or not – we’ve still got to come to play. Just being Georgia Southern is a bull’s eye because everybody wants to beat you because you’ve been at the top of the league.”
    Price put it simply: “I don’t know which seed is better, I just know we better be ready to play.”
    And being ready for the Bulldogs includes having a game-plan to slow senior guard Kevin Hammack, who has averaged 25 points a game against the Eagles this season.
    With the improved defense the Eagles have been playing lately, they say they are up to the task.
    “We feel good,” Graham said. “You want to peak at the right time, and right now we are peaking. We are turning that corner, everybody on the team has confidence and we are playing as a team. If we play people like we are supposed to and play defense like we want to, it’s going to be pretty hard to beat us.”
    Tonight’s winner advances to face Charleston in the late game Thursday night.

Southern Conference Basketball Tournament
Today-Saturday, Charleston, S.C.
Men’s Schedule
First Round: Today
Game 1: No. 8 Chattanooga vs. No. 9 Wofford, 3 p.m.
Game 2: No. 7 WCU vs. No. 10 Elon, 30 min. after Game 1
Game 3: No. 6 GSU vs. No. 11 The Citadel, 30 min. after Game 2
 
Quarterfinals: Thursday
Game 4: No. 1 Davidson vs. Winner of Game 1, 2 p.m.
Game 5: No. 4 UNCG vs. No. 5 Furman, 30 min. after Game 4
Game 6: No. 2 ASU vs. Winner of Game 2, 7 p.m.
Game 7: No. 3 Charleston vs. Winner of Game 3, 30 min. after Game 6
 
Semifinals: Friday
Game 8: Winner of Game 4 vs. Winner of Game 5, 6 p.m.
        (ESPN Full Court & SoCon Network)
Game 9: Winner of Game 6 vs. Winner of Game 7, 8:30 p.m.                 (ESPN Full Court & SoCon Network)

Championship: Saturday
Game 10: Championship, 6 p.m. (ESPN2)