Mississippi State women face South Carolina

Credit: Mississippi State Athletics

Mississippi State women’s basketball hits the road for the first time in Southeastern Conference play when it travels to take on No. 1/1 South Carolina inside Colonial Life Arena on Sunday at 12:00 p.m. on ESPN.

Fans not in attendance can follow action on ESPN with talent Courtney Lyle and Carolyn Peck or through their affiliate radio station with play-by-play talent Jason Crowder. Live statistics throughout the contest will be available through the statbroacast link attached above.

South Carolina leads the all-time series 26-19 and 13-6 in Columbia, South Carolina. When Mississippi State and South Carolina meet on Sunday, it will be the 17th time in program history that Mississippi State has played the No. 1 team in the country.

Sunday will also be the third-straight meeting and fourth time in the last five years that South Carolina has been ranked No. 1 when the two teams meet.

Mississippi State went 9-7 in regular-season SEC action in 2022-23. With the nine victories, head coach Sam Purcell was the only head coach in program history to have a winning conference record in his debut season and earned the most SEC wins by a Mississippi State head coach in their debut season by almost doubling the previous record of five.

Mississippi State has won eight of its last nine SEC road openers with its lone defeat occurring in an 80-68 loss at No. 1 South Carolina on Jan. 2, 2022. Mississippi State opened conference play on the road in 2022-23 with a 72-44 win over Vanderbilt in head coach Sam Purcell’s SEC debut.

Senior guard Jerkaila Jordan turned in team-high 21 points in Mississippi State’s conference opener against Vanderbilt on Thursday. Jordan has led the team in points in nine games this season and 41 times for her career – 25 times at Mississippi State. She also surpassed her SEC-high with six steals against the Commodores – her third game this season with five-plus steals.

Jordan leads the team with a career-best 17.4 points per game. She has scored in double figures in eight of the last nine SEC contests and in 23 of her last 27 games overall dating back to last season. The 20-point game also now extends her season total to six and career total to 27.

Graduate student guard Lauren Park-Lane ranks fifth nationally and leads the SEC with 98 assists as of Jan. 5. Park-Lane has the led the team in assists in 14 of 16 games. Her 2,064 career points ranks eight among active players, while her 796 career assists are second. Her and Iowa’s Caitlin Clark are the only two active players with over 2,000 points and 700 career assists and are the only two to rank in the top 10 in both points and assists among active marks. Park-Lane is also set to become only one of 29 players in NCAA history with 800 career assists.

The Southeastern Conference announced on Tuesday that senior guard Darrione Rogers was named SEC Player of the Week and freshman forward/center Quanirah Montague was voted Co-Freshman of the Week. Rogers collected the conference’s top weekly award after posting Mississippi State’s first triple-double since Dec. 16, 2000 with 14 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds in 34 minutes, while Montague earned the honors after posting her first career double-double with 14 points, 13 rebounds and six blocks in 23 minutes. It marks the third-straight week that Mississippi State has had a player selected for the SEC Player of the Week after graduate student guard Lauren Park-Lane was named SEC Player of the Week on Dec. 26 and graduate student center Jessika Carter was named SEC Co-Player of the Week on Dec. 19.

With the latest three selections, it stands as the first time in SEC women’s basketball history that any school has had three different players selected for Player of the Week honors in three straight weeks.

It also marks the first time since Jordan Danberry on Jan. 8 and Teaaira McCowan on both Jan. 15 and Jan. 22 of the 2018-19 season that Mississippi State has a selection in three straight weeks. Mississippi State and South Carolina remain the only SEC schools to have players named in back-to-back weeks this season. The SEC Freshman of the Week selection for Montague is her first and the first by a Mississippi State player since Denae Carter on Jan. 11, 2022.

Mississippi State remains on the road to face Arkansas inside Bud Walton Arena on Thursday at 8 p.m. on SEC Network.