South Carolina continues to show dominance aftter defeating Mississippi State to earn its 14 win of the season.

Sophomore Tessa Johnson led the way for the Gamecocks offensively with 22 points, hitting 4/6 from beyond the arc, and adding two assists. Johnson’s four made threes tied her career high and helped South Carolina take the lead against the Bulldogs.

Chloe Kitts earned her fourth double-double of the year positng 17 points and 10 rebounds, adding four assists. Raven Johnson got it done on both sides of the court scoring nine points, dishing out five assists, grabbing five rebounds, and tying a career-high with five steals.

This is the Gamecocks’ eighth straight victory since losing to top ranked UCLA on November 24. The win over the Bulldogs is the 49th straight regualr season SEC win, extending it’s SEC record.

South Carolina’s next game will come against the 9-6 Texas A&M Aggies on Thursday January 9 at 5:00 pm (ET).

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Associated Press

South Carolina State Bulldogs (1-16, 0-1 MEAC) at Coppin State Eagles (10-7, 1-0 MEAC)

Baltimore; Monday, 5:30 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: South Carolina State visits Coppin State after Angie Juste-Jean scored 25 points in South Carolina State’s 55-54 loss to the Morgan State Bears.

The Eagles have gone 5-0 in home games. Coppin State has a 4-0 record in games decided by 3 points or fewer.

The Bulldogs have gone 0-1 against MEAC opponents. South Carolina State ranks eighth in the MEAC with 7.3 offensive rebounds per game led by Justice Tramble averaging 1.9.

Coppin State’s average of 6.1 made 3-pointers per game is 1.1 fewer made shots on average than the 7.2 per game South Carolina State allows. South Carolina State averages 50.0 points per game, 16.2 fewer points than the 66.2 Coppin State gives up.

The matchup Monday is the first meeting this season between the two teams in conference play.

TOP PERFORMERS: Laila Lawrence is averaging 18.1 points, 9.8 rebounds and 2.8 steals for the Eagles.

Tramble is averaging 4.6 points for the Bulldogs.

LAST 10 GAMES: Eagles: 6-4, averaging 63.3 points, 32.4 rebounds, 13.2 assists, 9.7 steals and 2.2 blocks per game while shooting 37.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 66.2 points per game.

Bulldogs: 0-10, averaging 51.4 points, 26.9 rebounds, 8.0 assists, 8.7 steals and 1.5 blocks per game while shooting 39.7% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 72.7 points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

STARKVILLE — The vibes were high in Humphrey Coliseum early in the second quarter. 

Mississippi State women’s basketball center Madina Okot had just converted a layup off a sweet one-handed pass from Denim DeShields. It gave MSU its largest lead Sunday afternoon, an 11-point advantage over No. 2 South Carolina, the defending national champion. The Bulldogs’ fast start looked formidable. Maybe, just maybe, a triumphant upset and signature win for coach Sam Purcell was brewing. 

Then South Carolina turned into the team that’s lost just once in the past 1 1/2 seasons. The Gamecocks (14-1, 2-0 SEC) outscored Mississippi State 51-17 from that moment through the end of the third quarter to power toward a 95-68 victory.

The Bulldogs (13-3, 0-2) have lost consecutive conference games by at least 22 points with more ranked opponents like Oklahoma, Tennessee, Ole Miss and LSU looming in the next month. Purcell believes the Bulldogs have the right pieces, however, to compete at the top of the SEC. 

“I don’t think there’s really anything missing,” he said. “I really think it showed in the first quarter when you got 22-13 on the No. 1 team in the country that you have the pieces. Now, it’s just making sure that they handle it all right.”

What changed for Mississippi State in the second quarter

MSU took its 28-17 lead with 6:48 remaining in the second quarter. Four and a half minutes later, South Carolina took the lead and never gave it back. 

South Carolina shot 6-for-9 from 3-point range and didn’t commit a foul in the quarter.

“I think it started with sometimes the whistle goes your way, sometimes it doesn’t,” Purcell said. “I think we had zero whistle calls for us in the second quarter, and they had several. So then the game started slowing down. They got to the line, and you can’t have seven turnovers in one quarter. We talked about that. We value the ball. We know we’ve done so good, but we just had some dagger turnovers that allowed them to get some easy transition opportunities.”

Turnovers continue to be an issue for Mississippi State

Purcell warned before the season started that turnovers would be an issue, and it’s come to fruition. 

MSU committed 20 against South Carolina. The Gamecocks scored 23 points off those turnovers. It’s tied for the second most turnovers the Bulldogs have committed this season and the eighth time they’ve had at least 17 in a game. 

MORE: Inside the run that epitomizes Mississippi State basketball’s NCAA tournament potential

Many of them are self-inflicted, too, such as off-target passes or simply bad decisions. 

Mississippi State commits 16.1 turnovers per game, fifth worst in the SEC. Eniya Russell, DeShields and Okot all have more than 40 turnovers this season.

“Watch film, watch film, watch film, watch film,” said Destiney McPhaul, who scored 14 points off the bench. “The way you get better is you watch to see what you did wrong, learn from it and talk about it. You are going to make mistakes. You ain’t going to be perfect, but turnovers have been our biggest issue so far. We got to take care of the ball.”

Sam Sklar is the Mississippi State beat reporter for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at ssklar@gannett.com and follow him on X @sklarsam_.