Bulldogs, Gamecocks Battle With Semifinals At Stake
TAMPA, Fla. - After disposing of Georgia 79-60 on Thursday in the first round of the SEC Tournament at the St. Pete Times Forum, Mississippi State now turns its attention toward South Carolina, which had an opening-round bye.
Tipoff is slated for 2:15 p.m. CT, and the game will be televised by Raycom, with Tom Hammond handling the play-by-play duties and Larry Conley serving as the analyst.
It's the second meeting of the year between the two teams, as the Bulldogs (20-12, 10-7) claimed a 75-70 victory at Humphrey Coliseum on Feb. 18. MSU leads the overall series, 12-8, but is 0-2 against the Gamecocks (21-9, 10-6) in the SEC Tournament.
In their earlier meeting this season, Ravern Johnson paced MSU with 20 points, followed by Phil Turner and Dee Bost with 16 and 14, respectively. Devan Downey led Carolina with 19 points, while Dominique Archie, Zam Fredrick and Brandis Raley-Ross each added 11.
On Thursday against the Bullldogs, reserve forward Kodi Augustus had a career outing with a game-high 19 points on 6-of-9 shooting as State improved to 22-46 all-time in the tournament. He also drained 3 of his 4 3-point attempts and collected three rebounds. Junior forward Jarvis Varnado produced his eighth double-double of the year and the 15th of his career with 14 points and 12 rebounds.
The win also meant MSU has won 20-plus games under Rick Stansbury for the eighth time and the 14th time in school history.
Today's winner advances to the semifinals at noon on Saturday against the Kentucky-LSU winner.