PENSACOLA, Fla. --- The Mississippi College men's basketball team will look to get their 10th win of the season on Saturday when they travel to face the University of West Florida at 4:00 p.m. in the UWF Field House.
This will be the 6th all-time meeting between the two schools with the Argonauts holding a 3-2 edge in the series. UWF won the first three meetings, dating back to the 1968-69 season, but MC has won the last two contests, including a 78-60 victory on December 18th of this season. The Choctaws scored 30 points off 27 UWF turnovers and tallied a season-high 19 steals in the victory.
Tory Rice led MC with 18 points and 10 rebounds, while
Jay Case came off the bench to score 17 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the three-point line.
Head coach
Don Lofton is in his 11th season at the helm, winning his first two games of the season for his 180th career victory. Lofton has compiled a 108-33 (.766) record at home, including a perfect mark in the 2005-06 season.
The Choctaws are coming off an 87-77 victory at Valdosta State on Thursday night. MC took a 19-point lead into the halftime break, but the Blazers came out firing and cut the score to just three points with 50 seconds remaining. The Choctaws scored the game's final seven points, led by five from point guard
Tristan Moore. Rice recorded his 11th double-double of the season on Thursday, scoring 16 points with 12 rebounds. Overall, five Choctaws scored in double-figures as
Johnny Rucker came off the bench to score 13 and Case scored 12 points on 4-of-4 shooting from the three-point line.
Rice is the team's leading scorer (16.2 ppg) and rebounder (9.5 rpg) and is shooting 58% from the field. He has scored in double-figures in all but one game and is shooting 69% (85-of-123) from the free throw line. Rucker (11.9 ppg) and Moore (10.0 ppg) are also averaging in double-figures. Rucker is shooting 39% from the three-point line, while Moore leads the team in assists (85) and steals (36).
Case is going to go down as one of the top three-point shooters in MC history, making 94 career long balls on 198 attempts. His 48% shooting would rank 3rd in school history, while two more made three-pointers would make him the seventh player in school history with 100.
Led by 6th-year head coach Bob Stinnett, the Argonauts snapped a seven-game losing streak on Thursday night with an 86-82 victory over Delta State in double-overtime. UWF is 3-8 at the UWF Field House this season and 3-13 in Gulf South Conference action. Two of their three conference victories have come in overtime.
Erin Straughn (12.1 ppg) is the team's leading scorer, shooting 40% from the three-point line and averaging 5.8 rebounds per game. Demetrius Moore (10.1 ppg) is scoring in double-figures, while leading the team with 6.9 rebounds per game. Jason Laatsch averages 8.5 points per game and has tallied a team-high 59 assists.
