STARKVILLE, Miss. - Looking to protect their precarious one-game lead in the SEC’s Western Division standings, the Bulldogs of Mississippi State (17-8, 8-3) travel to Columbia, S.C., to take on the South Carolina Gamecocks (12-13, 4-7) Saturday afternoon. The 19th all-time series renewal is slated for a 4 p.m. ET tip-off at the 18,000-seat Colonial Center, and will be televised regionally by Raycom Sports.
Tom Hammond and former Mississippi State guard Joe Dean Jr., are slated to call the action during Saturday’s Raycom Sports telecast from Columbia, while the MSU-USC inter-divisional match-up can also be heard on XM Satellite Radio Channel 201 and on SIRIUS Satellite Radio Channel 127.
One game ahead of Arkansas in the SEC West race, coach Rick Stansbury’s 17-8 Bulldogs are 8-3 in conference play after having their three-game winning streak snapped with Wednesday’s 74-63 road setback to rival Mississippi. This week marks the first time this conference season in which MState has consecutive road contests in league play. It will happen again to open the month of March when the Bulldogs head to SEC East foes Florida and Vanderbilt on March 1 and 5, respectively. As a team, MSU continues to rank second nationally in both field-goal percentage defense (.369) and blocked shots (8.36 bpg), in addition to leading the conference in scoring defense (63.9 ppg) and rebounding (41.1 rpg).
Individually, the Bulldogs are powered by the all-star tandem of veterans Jamont Gordon (17.8 ppg, 6.4 rpg & 4.8 apg) and Charles Rhodes (15.2 ppg, 7.2 rpg & 1.4 bpg). A midseason Wooden Award selection and Cousy Award finalist (nation’s top collegiate point guard), Gordon is coming off his 11th 20-point effort of the season with his 20-point outing at Ole Miss on Wednesday. The Nashville native currently ranks as the lone active non-senior in NCAA Division I men’s basketball to have amassed 1,400 career points, 600 career rebounds and 400 career assists. With a team-high seven double-doubles on the season, Rhodes has recorded three double-double efforts over his last half-dozen outings. The rest of MState’s anticipated starting-five is comprised of sophomores Barry Stewart (12.2 ppg & 45 treys), Ben Hansbrough (10.0 ppg & 42 treys) and Jarvis Varnado (7.2 ppg, 7.8 rpg & 4.8 bpg).
Guided by veteran head coach Dave Odom, South Carolina owns a 12-13 overall record and 4-7 SEC mark after dropping an 85-82 decision at Florida earlier in the week. The Gamecocks are fueled by sophomore transfer guard Devan Downey, who tops the conference in scoring (19.7 ppg) and steals (3.3 spg) while ranking second in assists (5.2 apg). The fellow Cousy Award candidate has made 46 three-point shots and is shooting 76 percent from the line on the year. Junior guard Zam Fredrick averages 15.2 points and 3.2 assists an outing, along with having made a team-most 56 treys for the season. Sophomore forward Dominique Archie averages 11.0 points and a team-high 6.0 rebounds.
The Bulldogs own a slight 10-8 lead in this hardwood series that dates back to South Carolina’s first season (1991-92) in the Southeastern Conference. However, MSU is looking to snap a three-game series losing skid to the Gamecocks, including last year’s 66-63 home setback to USC. MState and Carolina have evenly split the eight previous Columbia meetings between the two teams, with the Bulldogs’ four prior road wins over the Gamecocks having been decided by an average margin of only 3.8 points per road victory.
