RICHMOND, Ky. – After three straight home games, the Eastern Kentucky University men’s basketball team hits the road to begin Ohio Valley Conference play Saturday at Jacksonville State. Tip time is set for 8 p.m. ET.

This is the very first OVC contest of the 2011-12 season. Eastern Kentucky (6-5) is 35-28 all-time in OVC openers and 2-4 in league openers under head coach Jeff Neubauer. EKU was picked seventh in the preseason OVC poll while the Gamecocks were tabbed to finish 10th.

Jacksonville State (3-7) will be playing its first home game in nearly a month Saturday. The Gamecocks just finished a six-game road swing that ended with a 1-5 record. However, JSU lost two of those games by three points or less and another in overtime. Sophomore Brian Williams recorded a career-high 21 points to go along with 11 assists Sunday at Tulane. The guard leads the OVC in assist-to-turnover ratio.

Eastern leads the all-time series, 10-7. However, EKU is 2-7 all-time at Jacksonville State. The Colonels broke a five-game losing skid at Jacksonville last February with a 57-51 win.

GAMEDAY INFORMATION

Game Notes
--Click here for game notes!

Television
--None

Video Streaming
--Saturday’s game can be seen on the web as part of OVCSports.tv. The cost is $5.95. Click here for live video stream!

Live Audio
--Saturday’s game can be heard locally on WCYO 100.7 FM. Click here for live radio broadcast!  WCYO is now streaming on most mobile devices. Download the TuneIn Radio app, available for iPhone/iPod/iPad, Android, Blackberry, Palm and Windows Phone.

Live Stats
--Click here for live stats!

Storylines
--Jeff Neubauer will be coaching his 200th game at Eastern Kentucky Saturday evening. Only two other head coaches have coached more games at EKU – Paul McBrayer (356 games from 1946-62) and Max Good (225 games from 1981-89).

--Senior Jaron Jones, who scored just 72 points all of last year in 29 games, scored 50 points in two games last week. Over the last two games, Jones is shooting 72 percent (18-of-25) from the floor and 92.3 percent (12-of-13) from the charity stripe.