Gamecocks Drop Home Contest to Bulldogs

COLUMBIA, S.C. –  Shakeel Moore scored a career-high 22 points, Tolu Smith had 15 points and eight rebounds and Mississippi State beat South Carolina 66-51 on Tuesday night for its second SEC victory of the season.

Mississippi State (14-8, 2-7), which was coming off an 81-74 victory over No. 11 TCU behind Smith’s career-high 27 points and 13 rebounds, posted back-to-back victories for the first time since opening the season 11-0.

Mississippi State closed the first half on an 11-4 run and opened the second by scoring six straight points for a 38-26 lead. The Bulldogs extended it to 66-46 after making seven straight shots and holding South Carolina without a field goal for four-plus minutes.

KEY STAT

• The Bulldogs shot 61.9 percent (13-for-21) in the second half and 52.9 percent for the game (27-for-51). Mississippi State scored 42 points in the paint to just 16 for the Gamecocks.

NOTABLES

• Josh Gray made his second consecutive start (fifth this season) and tallied a new career-high with 14 rebounds. He added six points and two assists in 22 minutes of action for Carolina.
• Gregory “GG” Jackson II led South Carolina with 15 points. Meechie Johnson also finished in double figures for the Gamecocks with 13 points, connecting on three triples.
• The Gamecock defense held Mississippi State to just 25.0 percent shooting (3-for-12) from beyond the arc.
• Carolina capitalized on 19 second chance points while grabbing 13 offensive rebounds. Josh Gray accounted for eight of those boards on the offensive glass.

UP NEXT

South Carolina (8-14, 1-8 SEC) remains home and welcomes in Arkansas (15-7, 4-5 SEC) on Saturday. Tipoff is set for 3:30 p.m. (ET) on SEC Network with Roy Philpott (pxp) and Mark Wise (analyst) on the call. It’s Legends Weekend for the Gamecocks as former players will be back in town and honored at halftime of Saturday’s game with the Razorbacks.

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