August 27, 2009

DAHLONEGA, GA – North Georgia College & State University head men’s basketball coach Chris Faulkner has announced an exhibition game will take place against the University Georgia the first week of November at Stegeman Coliseum.

The Saints will battle the Bulldogs in Athens on Friday, November 6, 2009, at Stegeman Coliseum on the campus of the University of Georgia, the first meeting between the two schools.

"We are very excited to have an opportunity to play the University of Georgia,” head coach Chris Faulkner said. “It is an opportunity for our players to compete against a very high level program that is not only recognized in our state, but also on a national level.  It is a great challenge for our team as we head into the 2009-2010 season"

This marks the first of two NCAA Division I opponents the Saints will take on in preseason action as North Georgia will travel to Kennesaw State University a week later to take on the Owls at the KSU Convocation Center.

The Bulldogs are just two years removed from capturing the Southeastern Conference Tournament Championship in Atlanta, Ga., and advancing to the NCAA Tournament.

In their third full season of NCAA Division II postseason eligibility, North Georgia will look to advance to their first NCAA Tournament, having finished fourth and fifth respectively in each of the last two seasons in the Peach Belt Conference regular season.

The last Division I opponent North Georgia played was exactly three years to the day the Saints will take on Georgia later this fall. On November 6, 2006, Chris Faulkner took his squad to Birmingham, Alabama, to take on Southern Conference member Samford University. A year earlier, the Saints traveled to the University of Alabama-Birmingham to take on the Blazers, a Conference USA member.

In 2007, the Peach Belt Conference made a pair of trips to Athens to take on the Bulldogs as Clayton State University fell 90-56, before Augusta State University went down to the wire at Stegeman Coliseum and fell 81-74.