CLINTON, Miss. --- The Mississippi College men's basketball team will play their first road game of the regular season on Tuesday night when they travel to Mobile to face Spring Hill College in the Arthur R. Outlaw Recreation Center. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 pm.
This will be the 12th overall meeting between MC and Spring Hill with the Choctaws holding a 7-4 edge in the series. The Badgers won three of the first four meetings, but MC has won six of the last seven.
The schools met last season in Clinton for the first time since the 1989-90 season with MC picking up a 77-57 victory in A.E. Wood Coliseum. The Choctaws held SHC to 35% shooting from the field and
Tory Rice posted a double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds.
The Choctaws are led by head coach
Don Lofton, who comes into his 12th season with his 200th career victory in sight. Lofton, who has been a part of the program for more than 30 years, has won 190 games as the head man.
MC opened the 2015-16 season with a 71-67 victory over Belhaven on Friday night. The Choctaws erased an 11-point second half deficit, led by senior
Tory Rice, who tallied his 14th career double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds.
The Choctaws shot 50% (29-of-58) from the field and held the Blazers to just 33% (7-of-21) in the second half. Five Choctaws finished in double-figures, including junior
Otis Harvey putting up 12 points off the bench, all in the second half.
Senior
Johnny Rucker scored 15 points, while senior
Tristan Moore poured in 14 points with five assists and five rebounds. Senior
Jonathan McGee scored 10 points with five rebounds and a team-high six assists.
Last season, the Choctaw defense was the key to their success, as they went 11-2 in games when they held opponents below 50% shooting from the floor. They were 0-11 when teams shot better than 50%. They also finished 6-0 when they held opponents to fewer than 70 points.
The Choctaws were also good at closing out games last season, going 7-0 when holding a halftime lead. They finished 7-2 in games they had a lead with 10 minutes remaining and 8-2 when they held a lead with five minutes left.
The 2015-16 season will be the final one for MC in transition from Division III to Division II. The Choctaw athletic programs are on pace to be full members of the GSC in the 2016-17 academic year. They are coming from the American Southwest Conference in Division III, where they men's basketball team won five conference tournament championships.
The Badgers are a member of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, and went 10-18 witih a 9-10 mark in conference play in 2014-15. They opened the 2015-16 season with a couple of losses to GSC opponents Shorter (89-74) and Union (82-67).
Third-year head coach Aaron Niven leads the Badgers, going 17-42 in his third season at the helm. SHC made a three-win jump from the 2013-14 to the 2014-15 seasons. The Badgers are shooting 46% from the field and 42% (14-of-33) from the three-point line this season. Their opponents have attempted 47 more free throws in the first two games.
- Redshirt freshman Sawyer Glick leads the team with 15.5 points per game, while Walter Massey is averaging 10.0 rebounds per contest.
