South-Carolina
Ole Miss basketball vs South Carolina score prediction, scouting report for key SEC game
Ole Miss coach Chris Beard on Arkansas win
What Ole Miss basketball coach Chris Beard said after Arkansas win.
OXFORD — Ole Miss basketball failed to hold serve at home last week, splitting games with Mississippi State and Auburn.
Now, if it wants to remain in the top half of the SEC, it will have to steal one of two upcoming road games on the schedule. The first comes on Tuesday (5:30 p.m., SEC Network), when the Rebels (18-4, 5-4 SEC) travel to play surging South Carolina (19-3, 7-2).
Here’s what to watch for.
Two of college basketball’s biggest turnaround stories clash
Roughly 11 months ago, Ole Miss and South Carolina met in Nashville as two of the four teams obligated to play on the unglamorous first day of the SEC Tournament.
The Gamecocks had just concluded a four-win regular season riddled with dysfunction to start Lamont Paris’ tenure as coach. The Rebels had fired former coach Kermit Davis after recording just three SEC wins and were playing out the schedule under interim Win Case.
Now, both reside in the top five of the SEC. Paris’ second season in charge has made South Carolina one of college basketball’s best stories. Winners of five straight, the Gamecocks have conference victories over Kentucky and Tennessee and have lost once at home all season.
Ole Miss has enjoyed a similar renaissance in its first season under coach Chris Beard. The Rebels finished their nonconference slate unbeaten and have proven themselves capable of winning in the SEC, though a recent loss to Auburn halted the momentum from a three-game winning streak.
Meechie Johnson and Jaylen Murray set for intriguing guard matchup
South Carolina’s leading scorer is its point guard, Meechie Johnson, who is in his second season with the program after transferring in from Ohio State.
Johnson averages 14.9 points per game, and is a willing 3-point shooter, attempting nearly six in each contest and shooting 35.2% from beyond the arc.
He’ll be met by Ole Miss point guard Jaylen Murray, an offseason find by Beard out of St. Peter’s who has blossomed as a Rebel. Murray gives the Rebels 14.5 points per contest and is also prolific from beyond the arc, where he shoots 43%.
The clash of off-the-ball guards is equally interesting, with a pair of veterans in that spot. South Carolina’s Ta’Lon Cooper is the second-best 3-point shooter in the SEC at 47.4%. He’s also a willing facilitator, posting 4.4 assists per game.
The Rebels rely on their two-guard, Mattew Murrell, for 16.8 points per game. He’s unlocked a newfound efficiency under Beard, shooting a career-high 47% from the field on the season.
BEARD: Why Chris Beard said Ole Miss basketball lacked mental toughness vs Auburn and how he plans to respond
Keep an eye on status of Jamarion Sharp pregame for Ole Miss basketball
Jamarion Sharp, Ole Miss’ 7-foot-5 rim protector, missed Saturday’s game against Auburn with what a team spokesperson described as a non-COVID illness.
“At this point, he’s kind of day-to-day,” Beard said Saturday.
The Rebels certainly missed Sharp against the Tigers. His absence asked a lot of fellow center Moussa Cisse, who played for 24 minutes ‒ six more than his previous average in SEC games.
Auburn dominated Ole Miss on the offensive glass, something that has been arguably the biggest problem for the Rebels this season. Ole Miss has one of the worst defensive rebounding percentages in all of college basketball, and the worst in the SEC.
South Carolina is a strong offensive-rebounding team, at 33.5% on the season. Whether or not Sharp plays, finding a way to mitigate that will be a major key for Ole Miss.
Ole Miss basketball vs. South Carolina score prediction
South Carolina 78, Ole Miss 74. If Ole Miss can defend the way it did on the road against Texas A&M two games ago, it can win this one. But the Rebels haven’t proven they can do that consistently on the road in conference play.
David Eckert covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at deckert@gannett.com or reach him on Twitter @davideckert98.
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COLUMBIA, S.C. (FOX Carolina) – A new poll from The Trafalgar Group offers an early snapshot of the Republican primary field in South Carolina’s race for governor.
The survey of 1,089 likely Republican primary voters was conducted May 2 to May 5 and lists a 2.9 percentage-point margin of error.
Who leads
In the poll’s test ballot, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette drew 25.2 percent support, followed by Attorney General Alan Wilson 23.1% percent.
The next tier included U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman 19.6 percent and U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace 15.2 percent.
The remaining candidates were Rom Reddy 10.1 percent, state Sen. Josh Kimbrell 4.2 percent and Jacqueline Dubose 2.7 percent.
What to know
Poll results can change quickly as campaigns ramp up, endorsements are made and more voters tune in.
The Trafalgar Group said the poll was conducted among likely GOP primary voters with a 95 percent confidence level.
What’s next
FOX Carolina will continue tracking new polling, endorsements and candidate announcements as the 2026 election cycle unfolds.
Feel more informed, prepared, and connected with FOX Carolina. For more free content like this, download our apps.
Copyright 2026 WHNS. All rights reserved.
South-Carolina
Former South Carolina QB Stephen Garcia diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer at 38 years old
A former college football star is now fighting cancer at 38 years old.
Stephen Garcia, a quarterback for four years at South Carolina, revealed on social media Wednesday that he was diagnosed with Stage 4 colorectal cancer.
A GoFundMe page, organized by his wife Maria that has already garnered nearly $100K in donations, said that after a trip to the emergency room and multiple imaging tests, Garcia was diagnosed with cancer and was set to begin chemotherapy. He is now on an “aggressive” track, and “he will be meeting with specialized liver and colon surgeons to determine the next steps in his treatment plan.”
Garcia took to Facebook to share the GoFundMe link and said he is confident he will be able to overcome the diagnosis.
“Wasn’t overly excited to share this news but it is what it is. We have a great team of doctors and staff that’s confident we can beat this! It’s the only option,” he wrote. “If there’s one lesson to be learned, get checked and don’t be afraid to visit the doctors office when you don’t feel 100%.”
He later thanked everyone for their support on his Instagram story.
Garcia had a prolific career with the Gamecocks, throwing for 7,597 yards and 49 touchdowns. In 2009, as a sophomore, he led the SEC with 239 completions before throwing a career-high 3,059 yards with 20 touchdowns during the next campaign, as South Carolina finished at No. 22 in the final poll of the season.
His 20 wins rank tied for third-most in program history. Garcia later spent time in the CFL, AFL and AAF after his college football days.
South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer said he is “praying” for the former QB.
“I talked to Stephen about an hour ago, actually, and he was in great spirits,” Beamer said Wednesday in Columbia, according to The State. “Then texting back and forth since we talked on the phone about an hour ago and told him to attack this thing with the same mindset that he’s attacked everything going back to when he was a player here and still is now as a human being.
“Told him I got his back, and we all have his back. Just praying hard for him right now.”
LEXINGTON COUNTY, S.C. (WACH) — A Virginia man has been arrested on charges related to the sexual exploitation of a minor, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced on Wednesday.
On Sunday, Michael Mickels Jr., 18, of Fredericksburg, Virginia, was arrested.
Authorities charged Mickels with one count of criminal solicitation of a minor, a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison, and one count of first-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
The Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force investigated with the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department and the Virginia State Police.
Investigators said Mickels solicited a minor for sex and encouraged the making of child sexual abuse material.
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The South Carolina Attorney General’s Office will prosecute the case.
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