LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN -- Basketball season is here. Finally.

The Covenant men's basketball team opens the 2020-21 season with an exhibition at Samford on Tuesday night inside the Pete Hanna Center at 8 p.m. EST (7 p.m. CST). It will be the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down sports in March that a Covenant program will officially play against outside competition.

GAME LINKS:

Tickets: Limited tickets are available for purchase
Watch: ESPN+ (play-by-play: Curt Bloom; color: Boyd Kaiser)
Live Stats
Game Notes (PDF) - Covenant
Game Notes (PDF) - Samford

KEY STORYLINES:

• Tonight's game is an exhibition for both Covenant and Samford. 
• Samford (0-1) took a 78-76 loss to Alabama A&M on Sunday in its regular season opener. The Bulldogs took down Division III Greenville (Ill.), 174-99, in an exhibition on Nov. 25.
• Covenant and Samford last met on Nov. 6, 2008, with Samford holding on for an 81-67 victory. That game was an exhibition for Samford, but a regular season contest for Covenant.
• Covenant is coming off a fifth straight winning season, a program record, after a 15-12 campaign last year. The Scots won a second consecutive USA South West Division regular season title in the process with an 11-7 conference record.
• The Scots return three starters from last year: Will Crumly, Zack Allen, and Chris Barnette. Overall, the Scots bring back nine letterwinners from 2019-20.
• Crumly earned a second straight USA South Player of the Year award in 2019-20 after averaging 17.2 points and 8.6 rebounds per game. The senior was a preseason All-America selection by the Basketball Times this season -- the second straight year he has been a preseason All-American.
• Covenant has two players from the Birmingham area, senior Tavian Roundtree (Hoover) and sophomore Luke Touliatos (Birmingham). Touliatos is in his first year as a Scot after transferring from Shelton State CC where he averaged 8.9 points last year. Touliatos was on the Samford roster in 2017-18 as a preferred walk-on before taking a redshirt.

CONNECT WITH THE SCOTS

Be sure to follow the Scots all season long on athletics.covenant.edu and on social media at Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for up-to-date scores, news and other information. To receive e-newsletters, click here