South Carolina sails past Miss. St. in SEC opener
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| Team Stat Comparison |
|
SOUTH CAROLINA |
MISSISSIPPI STATE |
| Points |
59 |
44 |
| FG Made-Attempted |
23-56 (.411) |
19-47 (.404) |
| 3P Made-Attempted |
5-18 (.278) |
3-11 (.273) |
| FT Made-Attempted |
8-13 (.615) |
3-5 (.600) |
| Fouls (Tech/Flagrant) |
10 (0/0) |
13 (0/0) |
| Largest Lead |
17 |
7 |
| Next 5 Games |
| SOUTH CAROLINA (ET) |
MISSISSIPPI STATE (ET) |
| 03/10 @TENN 1:00pm | | 03/11 @UK 1:00pm | | 03/12 @FLA 1:00pm | | 03/15 WKU 7:00pm | | 03/21 @FSU 7:00pm |
|
| 11/11 NICH 3:00pm | | 11/13 LMU 8:00pm | | 11/18 WIN 7:00pm | | 11/21 @CLEM 7:00pm | | 11/29 CHAR 8:00pm |
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| · Complete Schedule: South Carolina | Mississippi State
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Renaldo Balkman scored 12 points, and
South Carolina overcame a sluggish start and beat Mississippi State
59-44 Thursday in the opening round of the Southeastern Conference
tournament.
The Gamecocks (16-14) will play Tennessee (No. 15 ESPN/USA Today; No. 14 AP), the East
Division's top seed, in the quarterfinals Friday after winning
their first-round game for the second time in the last three years.
Mississippi State (15-15) had not lost an opening game since the
tournament last was in Nashville, in 2001. But the Bulldogs, the
Western Division's winningest team in this tournament since 1999
and the fourth-seed, finished the season failing to win consecutive
games against SEC opponents.
Tre Kelley and Tarence Kinsey each added 11 points for South
Carolina, which had a season-low four turnovers.
Charles Rhodes and Jamont Gordon each had 11 for Mississippi
State.
South Carolina, the No. 5 seed from the East, beat the Bulldogs
83-61 on Feb. 11 in the teams' only other meeting, and a team that
had 10 SEC games decided by six points or less got to enjoy a rare
easy victory by taking advantage of Mississippi State's own
mistakes.
The Bulldogs, starting three freshmen, outrebounded South
Carolina 34-27. But they turned the ball over 17 times, and the
Gamecocks turned those into 22 points.
Mississippi State started strong enough, hitting its first four
shots and leading 9-2 within the first three minutes.
But South Carolina settled down after missing 10 of its first 13
shots by hitting 10 of the next 19. The Gamecocks also started
pressuring the young Bulldogs and scored 13 points off seven
turnovers before Kinsey scored to give South Carolina its first
lead at 15-13 with 9:14 left.
The Gamecocks led as much as 31-20 on a basket by Dwayne Day
with 2:03 to go off another turnover, and they led 32-25 at
halftime. Mississippi State last got within double digits on a
bucket by Wesley Morgan at 46-38 with 8:19 to go before South
Carolina scored the next six points to put the game away.
South Carolina 59, 
Mississippi State 44