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South Carolina (23-5) at Mississippi State (12-15)
WATCH: 2:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network
Mississippi State entered the last four games of Ben Howland's first season in Starkville on a two-game winning streak. Their winning ways came to an end Wednesday night in a close loss to Texas A&M, the very team South Carolina is tied with currently in the SEC standings.
The Gamecocks hold the tiebreaker over the Aggies, putting them second in the conference, and enter Saturday's match-up with the Bulldogs on a two-game winning streak of their own. Their latest victory coming earlier this week in one of team's most complete performances of the season, defeating Tennessee, 84-58, and evening the season series with the Volunteers. It was just the second USC win over UT in the programs' last 10 meetings.
With three games remaining in a successful regular season for South Carolina, they will play two of them on the road. It has been no secret that this team has struggled away from Columbia this season. Horrid energy off the bus, combined with poor shooting has often put the Gamecocks in second half holes that few rallies could overcome.
Before falling to Texas A&M, MSU had pulled off wins over Vanderbilt and Alabama in consecutive games. This season in college basketball, the elite teams may not be there for you to have to beat on your way to a championship, but there are more teams that can beat you. This SEC season has been prove of that. Anybody can beat anybody and the Gamecocks should be aware of that by now.
Senior forward Gavin Ware leads the Bulldogs in scoring with 15.6 points per game. Craig Sword (12.9 PPG) and Quindarry Witherspoon (11.9) also average double-figure scoring. Once considered a lottery pick in this summer's NBA Draft, freshman Malik Newman has been somewhat of a disappointment this season. He's had his stretches of good ball but make no mistake, the faithful in Starkville expected more out him. With that said, he possess the talent to have an outstanding performance any night of the week.