CLINTON, Miss. --- The Mississippi College men's basketball team will look for a second straight win when they host Shorter University on Thursday night. Tip-off in A.E. Wood Coliseum is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday night's matchup is the make-up game from a contest that was originally scheduled to be played in Rome, Ga. on January 7th and was postponed due to "unforeseen circumstances."
The Choctaws will then make the short trip to Cleveland on Saturday to face rival Delta State University at 4:00 p.m. in Sillers Coliseum.
GAME INFORMATION
Matchup: Mississippi College (6-16, 3-14 GSC) vs. Shorter (2-23, 0-17 GSC)
Date: Wednesday, February 20th, 2019
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Clinton, Miss. | A.E. Wood Coliseum
Matchup: Mississippi College (7-16, 4-14 GSC) vs. Delta State (15-10, 11-7 GSC)
Date: Saturday, February 23rd, 2019
Time: 4:00 p.m.
Location: Cleveland, Miss. | Sillers Coliseum
SCOUTING MISSISSIPPI COLLEGE
The Choctaws are led by 15th-year head coach
Don Lofton, who has posted a career record of 220-171 (.563). He is joined on the bench by first-year assistant coach
Alex Ainsworth and former Choctaw
Otis Harvey as a graduate assistant. The Choctaws won back-to-back games for the first time this season, grabbing an 85-68 win over Shorter on Wednesday night.
Junior
Brandon Boston (15.0 ppg, 6.3 rpg) leads the team in scoring and rebounding and scored over 20 points for the 5th time this season with 21 against Shorter. Senior
Marcus Lytle (12.8 ppg) scored in double-figures for the fourth straight game and tied a season-high with three 3-pointers made.
Senior
Howard Thomas (5.9 ppg) and sophomore
Dyllan Taylor (11.3 ppg) combined to go 15-of-15 from the field against Shorter, scoring 16 points apiece. Since entering the starting lineup three games ago, Thomas has helped the Choctaws score 50 points in the paint per contest. Taylor leads the squad with 91 assists and is averaging 7.0 helpers over the last three contests.
SCOUTING SHORTER
The Hawks, led by 2nd-year head coach Wade Anderson, will look to snap a 20-game losing streak on Wednesday night with their last win coming on November 20th against Pensacola Christian (94-80). Shorter played Monday night at home against West Georgia, falling by a score of 88-67.
Joe Russell (12.1 ppg) is the team's leading scorer, shooting 45% from the floor and 37% from the three-point line. He also has a team-best 1.9 assists per game. TayVaughn Major (10.3 ppg) is also averaging in double-figures, while Frenki Lilaj (9.5 ppg) leads the squad with 5.4 rebounds per contest.
SCOUTING DELTA STATE
The Statesmen, led by 7th-year head coach Jim Boone, are currently tied for 5th in the Gulf South Conference standings and have already clinched a spot in the postseason tournament. DSU has lost four of their last five games, including dropping games at West Florida (73-70) and Valdosta State (90-74) last weekend.
Brett Warner (14.1 ppg) is the team's leading scorer on a squad that boasts five players that average double-figure points. Rasheide Bell (12.8 ppg) is shooting 41% from the three-point line, while Justin Slocum (10.4 ppg) has a team-high 6.9 rebounds per game. Cedric Harper (9.9 ppg) leads the team with 38 blocked shots, while Armon Benford (8.0 ppg) leads the squad with 82 assists and is second with 6.8 rebounds per game.
GAME NOTES
This will be the 8th all-time meeting between the two schools with Shorter holding a 6-1 edge in the series.
MC grabbed their first-ever victory over the Hawks last season, traveling to Rome and walking away with a 96-85 triumph.
Donovan Ham scored a career-high 31, whil
Brandon Boston added 23 and
Tucker Campbell came off the bench to score 20.
This will be the 97th all-time meeting between the two Magnolia State schools with the Statesmen holding a 58-37-1 edge in the series.
Earlier this season, DSU came to Clinton and shot over 50% in a 74-65 win over the Choctaws.
Marcus Lytle scored a team-high 15 points for the Choctaws, while Rasheide Bell led all scorers with 17 points.
Mississippi College is a private Christian university located in Clinton, Mississippi with an enrollment of over 5,000 students. MC 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.
#MC#
