To start their respective February schedules, the South Carolina Gamecocks will travel to Humphrey Coliseum to take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs in an SEC matchup.
Mississippi State Bulldogs
The Bulldogs return to their home arena after dropping back-to-back away games last week against No. 5 Kentucky and No. 14 Texas Tech. At home, the Bulldogs are 11-1. As they enter this matchup, Mississippi State will look to continue their seven-game home winning streak. They hold an overall record of 13-7 and a 4-3 record in conference play.
In their loss against Texas Tech, Iverson Molinar, D.J. Jeffries and Rocket Watts all reached double figures. However, it was not enough to come out on top, as they fell to the Red Raiders 76-50.
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Against Texas Tech, the Bulldogs has a season-high 22 turnovers and their lowest-scoring game of this season. Therefore, in order to come out on top of the Gamecocks, head coach Ben Howland and the Bulldogs will look to improve on offense.
South Carolina Gamecocks
The Gamecocks are on a three-game win streak after taking down Georgia, Vanderbilt and Texas A&M. They enter this matchup at 13-7, with a conference record of 4-4.
In their most previous matchup against Texas A&M, Gamecocks guard James Reese V put up 20 points. This marks the fifth time in their last seven games that the guard has scored 10 points or more. Also, Jermaine Couisnard and Erik Stevenson added 13 points respectively. With this performance, South Carolina was able to pull away in the second half to beat Texas A&M 74-63.
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Head coach Frank Martin and the Gamecocks will look to these key players to keep their winning streak alive.
The Matchup
This marks the first time South Carolina and Mississippi State match up against one another this season. Mississippi State holds the fifth position in the SEC, while South Carolina stands at ninth.
The Bulldogs possess the advantage in the series, with an overall 25-16 record and have won six of the last eight matchups dating back to the 2017 season.
Tip off is set for 7 p.m.