2013 SEC Basketball Tournament: Mississippi St Bulldogs 69 South Carolina Gamecocks 59
By Blue Brandon
Mar 13, 2013; Nashville, TN, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs forward Gavin Ware (20) grabs a rebound against the South Carolina Gamecocks during the first round of the SEC tournament at Bridgestone Arena. Mandatory Credit: Don McPeak-USA TODAY Sports
Tonight the Men’s SEC Basketball Tournament started in Nashville, TN at the Bridgestone Arena. The opening game was between the South Carolina Game Cocks (12 seed 14-7, 4-14 SEC) and the Mississippi State Bulldogs (13 seed 9-21, 4-14 SEC). The game started out a little slow and was very close the first 10 minutes. But around the 9 minute mark to go in the first half Mississippi St. started to slowly pull away from South Carolina. Then with 7 minutes to go in the first half Mississippi St had doubled up South Carolina and led 26-13. Mississippi St. then went on a short drought and let South Carolina come back to a single digit deficit around the 2 minute mark.
Mississippi St would close out the first half with a 32-21 led. The keys to Mississippi St.’s success in the first half was their FG% which was 45% compared to South Carolina’s 31% and they had 6-1 edge in steals. They also held a slight edge in having 3 more made 3 pointers and four more made free throws. Key Players for the first half for Mississippi St. was Colin Borchert that went for 4-5 FG, 1-1 3 pointers and had a total of 9 points. Gavin Ware also, contributed with 6 rebounds and 4 points. South Carolina’s key players for the first half was LA. Chatkevicius that went 3/6 FG and had a total of 7 points. Leonard Damien came off the bench in the first half to give South Carolina a slight boost by going 2-2 FG ,1-1 3 pointers to have total of 5 points. Bruce Ellington did not take many shots in the first half and had 2 points.
The second half started off with Colin Borchert picking up his third foul in the first sixty seconds. With Borchert out of the game South Carolina turned the heat up. Bruce Ellington hit his first 3 early in the second half and along with Michael Carrera with a big effort pulled South Carolina back with in 7 with 15 minutes to go. Bruce Ellington and Michael Carrera came out to play in the second half and slowly started to pull the Gamecock into the game. But Mississippi St. wisely starting changing there defense up with 10 minutes to go and slowed South Carolina down a little and pulled their led back to 11. Mississippi St.’s Micheal Carrera had to leave the game around the 9 minute mark due to incidentally elbow that left him with a cut over his eye and would not return till around 5 minutes to go. The game would remain close for the most of the game as South Carolina shots started to fall and they pulled there FG% up to 40% compared to Mississippi St.’s 45%. At the five minute mark Mississippi St. led South Carolina 60-51 but then South Carolina went on a 7-0 run and cut the led to 4 with 4 minutes to go. The game stay around a 5 point led till Fred Thomas hit a big 3 with 2 minutes to go to pull the Bulldogs back up to a 8 point led. Fred Thomas had a quiet first half but come out big in the second half as he 19 points with 2 minutes to go. Mississippi St. would go on to win the game 69-59.
Mississippi St pretty well controlled the whole game thanks to Fred Thomas who finished with 6-12 FGs ,4-8 3 pointers, 5-6 FT, 3 Rebounds, 5 Steals, 3 Blocks and a total of 21 points. A good all around game as he had a career night and become the x factor in the second half. Colin Borchet finished the night with 11 points and Roquez Johnson almost had a double double with 11 points and 8 rebounds. Another one of Mississippi St.’s key to success was in the stats column, the Bulldogs shot 46.9% to 37.5% by the Gamecocks, 12 steals to 4 and got to the line a lot more then South Carolina as the Bulldogs went 17 out of 27 and the Gamecocks went 5 out of 7. South Carolina’s Micheal Carrera finished with 9 points and 6 rebounds, LA. Chatkevicius had 11 points and 5 rebounds and Bruce Ellington finished with 13 points. Mississippi St. moves on to take on the Tennessee Volunteers (5 seed 19-11, 11-7 SEC) on Thursday March 14 at 3:30
Written by: Blue Brandon
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