CLINTON, Miss. --- The Mississippi College men's basketball team will open their longest road swing of the season on Saturday afternoon when they travel to face Shorter University in the Winthrop-King Centre. Tip-off is scheduled for 3:00 pm (Central).

This will be just the third all-time meeting between the two schools with the Hawks winning both contests last season. Shorter won 90-85 in Clinton and picked up a 101-91 victory in Rome.

Last year's game in Georgia was a high-scoring affair, with MC trailing by as many as 32 points in the second half. A huge rally by the Choctaws that saw them score 67 second-half points, the most since the year 2000, and cut the lead to seven in the final minutes. The Hawks held on for the 10-point victory. Emmanuel Ezejiofo scored 26 points, while Tristan Moore had 23 and Tory Rice scored 17 points with 12 rebounds.

The Choctaws dropped their second straight home game to open 2016 with a 73-68 loss to North Alabama on Monday night. Jonathan McGee led MC with a career-high 20 points in the game, going 4-of-10 from the three-point line.

MC head coach Don Lofton 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 193 games as the head man and coached his 300th career game against UWF.

The Choctaws have been road warriors this season, going 3-1 in GSC play with the only loss coming by one point at West Georgia, who is tied at the top of the standings. MC's last road trip saw them pick up a win over West Florida (84-82) and grab an overtime victory over Valdosta State (89-88).

Tory Rice (14.9 ppg / 11.2 rpg) is MC's leading scorer and rebounder and is on pace to become just the 8th player in school history to average a double-double for his career. The Starkville native was held below 10 points for just the second time this season, scoring nine in the loss to UNA.

Tristan Moore (14.4 ppg / 4.6 apg) leads the team in assists and is second in scoring. The Senatobia native has scored in double-figures in four straight games and is averaging 4.8 assists per game in that span.

Jonathan McGee (11.0 ppg) led the Choctaws in scoring against UNA and has scored in double-figures in four straight. The Raymond native is averaging 16.5 points per game in the last four and has made 10 three-pointers in his last three games.

Johnny Rucker (12.7 ppg) went 10-of-11 from the free throw line, scoring 17 points in the loss to UNA on Monday. The Yazoo City native scored a season-high 24 points in the win over Valdosta State and has pulled down eight rebounds in his last two games.

The Hawks are led by first-year head coach, Tyler Murray, who served as an assistant at Shorter for six seasons before spending one season at Charleston Southern, where he helped lead the Bucs to a Big South Conference regular season title.

The Hawks are 3rd in the GSC in scoring (86.3 ppg), but rank last in points allowed (87.7 ppg). They have allowed 90+ points five times this season but have scored 100+ points six times. Opponents are outrebounding SU by nearly nine per game.

Phil Taylor (24.1 ppg) leads the team and ranks 2nd in the conference in scoring. He scored a season-high 46 points against North Georgia and leads the team with 4.5 assists per game.

Chris Daniels (12.9 ppg) is the team's leading rebounder at 7.4 per contest. Alijah Bennett (12.5 ppg), Trevor McDade (12.4 ppg) and Cole Birchfield (10.4 ppg) are all scoring in double-figures.