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After trailing by as many as 14 points in the opening minutes, the Mississippi College men’s basketball team came back to seal a season sweep of West Alabama with a 69-57 on Saturday afternoon in A.E. Wood Coliseum.
The Choctaws (6-9, 5-8 GSC) came out of the gates ice cold, and when Jake Jobling made a three-pointer at the 10:31 mark of the opening half, the Tigers (10-9, 6-7 GSC) took a 20-6 lead.
The defense tightened up the rest of the way as MC outscored UWA 19-11 and trailed just 31-25 as the teams went into halftime.
To open the second half, the Tigers would again push the lead out to eight points, but the Choctaws continued to chip away and when senior Tristan Moore nailed a three-pointer with 13:57 to go, MC held a 40-38 advantage.
Moore scored 11 points with six assists, while senior Tory Rice tallied his 22nd career double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds, going 7-of-8 from the field. The Starkville native became the 56th player in school history to score 600 career points and is the 22nd player ever to pull down 400 rebounds.
After the lead traded hands a couple of times over the next few minutes, the Tigers would grab a 46-45 lead with 10:15 remaining when Acie Vance made a long ball.
Vance was UWA’s leading scorer with 16 points, while Jobling scored 11, but was held to just two in the second half after going 3-of-6 from long range in the opening 20 minutes.
The MC defense would stiffen, holding UWA scoreless over the next three minutes and going on a 9-0 run that would give the Choctaws a lead they would not relinquish.
The Tigers would cut the score to 55-53 with 5:26 remaining, but another long scoreless drought allowed the Choctaws to go on an 11-0 run and take a 66-53 lead with 1:40 remaining.
“Our guys played extremely tough and physical today,” said head coach Don Lofton. “The guys did a great job of getting to the foul line and knocking down their shots. This is the kind of effort we need to give on a nightly basis.”
The Choctaws were 24-of-36 (67%) from the foul line and forced 12 turnovers while giving the ball away just seven times.
The victory would be the Choctaws’ first home Gulf South Conference victory of the season and just their second overall win in A.E. Wood Coliseum.
Johnny Rucker scored 18 points on the night, going 3-of-9 from the three-point line and knocking down all three of his foul shots.
MC shared the ball well on Saturday, tallying 14 assists on 19 made field goals.
The Choctaws will be back in action on Thursday night when they travel to Memphis to face Christian Brothers at 7:00 p.m.
