CLINTON, Miss. --- The Mississippi College men's basketball team will wrap up a three-game home stretch to open Gulf South Conference play when they welcome rival West Alabama to Clinton on Saturday night. Tip-off in A.E. Wood Coliseum is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Game time has been pushed back due to the student-athletes taking exams on Saturday morning.

The Choctaws (3-3, 1-1 GSC) and the Tigers (7-2, 2-0 GSC) have met 65 previous times with MC holding a 34-31 edge in the series. The two schools split both matchups last season with the road team winning, including MC closing out the regular season with a 74-71 win in Livingston.

Head coach Don Lofton leads the Choctaws in his 14th season at the helm, and Saturday marks his 350th career game on the bench. He ranks second in school history in games coached behind athletic director Mike Jones. The Tigers are led by 4th-year head coach Allen Sharpe.
 

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MISSISSIPPI COLLEGE (3-3, 1-1 GSC)
ROSTER  |  SCHEDULE  |  STATISTICS
 
The Choctaws are coming off an exhibition win over William Carey on Tuesday night in Hattiesburg with senior Xavion Dillon scoring the game-winning basket in the final second to take the victory, 75-74. Dillon scored 27 points with 15 rebounds and went 11-of-13 from the free throw line.

MC played their final exhibition game of the season without four of their starters, including leading scorer and rebounder Stacey Mack (17.3 ppg, 7.8 rpg), who has scored in double-figures in each of the last five games, including a career-high 29 against Southern-New Orleans (November 20).

Also missing were senior Antonio Johnson (13.2 ppg) and juniors Davy Fisher (4.5 ppg) and Donovan Ham (13.7 ppg). Johnson led the Gulf South Conference in three-point shooting in 2016-17, while Ham scored a career-high 20 points in last Saturday's tight loss to Christian Brothers.

The Choctaws rank 4th in the GSC in scoring (81.5 ppg), but they are allowing 81.0 points per game, which ranks 14th in the league. MC is shooting 75% from the free throw line, sitting at second in the league, and their 17.7 assists per game is also in the top five.
 

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WEST ALABAMA (7-2, 2-0 GSC)
ROSTER  |  SCHEDULE  |  STATISTICS
 
The Tigers have won four straight, including beginning conference play with back-to-back victories over North Alabama (88-77) and UAH (82-66). While UWA is 4-0 in home games this season, they dropped their lone true road game of the season, falling to Lane College (79-70) on November 18th.

Charles Eaton (26.8 ppg) leads the Gulf South Conference in scoring, averaging nearly five points more than any other player in the league. He is shooting 57% from the floor and 40% from the three- point line and has scored in double-figures in all nine games with his season-low coming in the loss to Lane with just 18 points.

Josh Fleming (16.1 ppg) and Gavin Robinson (14.3 ppg) are the only other two Tigers scoring more than six points per game. Robinson leads the team with 7.9 rebounds per game, while Domonique Alexander has 19 blocked shots through the first nine games of the season.

The Tigers rank 3rd in the league in scoring (85.0 ppg) and are the top team in the conference in free throw percentage (.774). UWA was picked to finish 11th in the GSC preseason poll after going 5-17 in league play in 2016-17.
 

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Mississippi College is a private Christian university located in Clinton, Mississippi with an enrollment of over 5,000 students. MC is recently finished their transition process back to NCAA Division II and the Gulf South Conference and will be competing for conference and national championships in the 2016-17 academic year.
 
The athletic department sponsors 17 intercollegiate athletic programs: Baseball, Men's and Women's Basketball, Men's and Women's Cross Country, Football, Golf, Men's and Women's Soccer, Softball, Men's and Women's Tennis, Men's and Women's Indoor Track & Field, Men's and Women's Outdoor Track & Field and Volleyball.
 
For more information on Mississippi College athletics, please contact David Nichols at 601-925-3234 or nichols@mc.edu.