CLINTON, Miss. --- The Mississippi College men's basketball team outscored Valdosta State in the second half, but it was not enough has they fell, 79-63, on Thursday night in A.E. Wood Coliseum.

The Choctaws fell to 8-14 with a 4-12 Gulf South Conference mark, while the Blazers improved to 19-3 with a 13-2 league record.
 

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HOW IT HAPPENED
  - Winford Ross scored the Choctaws' first six points and his jumper with 15:52 remaining in the first half made the score 8-6.
  - The Blazers would go on a 16-3 run and take a 24-9 advantage with 11:44 to go on a layup from Clay Guillozet.
  - VSU eventually pushed the lead out to 51-25, but MC would score the final seven points of the half to make the deficit 51-32 at the break.
  - In the second half, the Choctaws continued their comeback and a layup by Winceton Edwards with 13:28 remaining cut the score to 59-44.
  - The Blazers answered with eight straight points and eventually extended the lead out to 72-46 with 8:53 to go.
  - The Choctaws didn't quit, however, scoring nine straight and cutting the deficit to 74-61 with 3:20 to go on a jumper from Stefan Bozickovic.
  - The could not get any closer as the Blazers would go on to grab the season sweep of MC.
 

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KEY STATS
  - The Choctaws held the high-powered Valdosta State offense that averages over 90 points per game to just 79 points and 32% shooting in the 2nd half.
  - MC shot 41% (24-of-58) from the field but was just 5-of-20 (25%) from the three-point line.
  - After being outrebounded 22-9 in the first half, MC responded by pulling down 29 boards to 22 for Valdosta in the second stanza.
  - Winford Ross led the Choctaws with 18 points and 11 rebounds, tallying a double-double.
  - Bozickovic came off the bench and scored eight points in nine minutes, while Nigel White had three points and a career-high six rebounds.
  - Guillozet led all scorers with 20 points and had a double-double with a game-high 12 rebounds.
 

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NEXT UP
  - The Choctaws will be back in action on Saturday when they host West Florida at 4:00 p.m. in A.E. Wood Coliseum.
 

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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 began 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.