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_.

These days, signing a Name, Image and Likeness deal and a return to football for the following season seem to go hand-in-hand.

That was the case for South Carolina wide receiver Nyck Harbor.

The Garnet Trust, South Carolina’s NIL collective, announced on Saturday that it had reached a deal with Harbor, a wide receiver who is poised to have a huge season in 2025.

The Garnet Trust announced the deal on social media.

The sophomore didn’t make a formal announcement that he was returning for 2025, but the NIL likely cements a third season for him in Columbia. Plus, he posted this to social media shortly after the Garnet Trust announced the deal.

The 6-5, 235-pound receiver is one of the top athletes in the SEC and his numbers suggest that 2025 could be huge year for him, the first year he’ll be eligible for the NFL Draft.

The former five-star prospect caught 24 passes for 376 yards and three touchdowns. That was second on the team behind tight end Joshua Simon.

With quarterback LaNorris Sellers returning, Harbor could have a big year after South Carolina went 9-4 in 2024.

Harbor could be preparing for a second season with the Gamecocks’ track and field team, as he was a two-sport athlete in high school and has continued so in college. That kept him out of spring drills last season.

During the outdoor season he earned co-SEC Freshman of the Week accolades after posting the third-fastest 100 meters in school history. Harbor also recorded his best times during the outdoor season of 10.11 in the 100m dash and 20.20 in the 200, earning second-team All-America honors in both events.

As a true freshman in 2023, Harbor played in all 12 games for South Carolina, including starts each of the final five games. He finished with 12 receptions for 195 yards, with an average of 16.3 yards per catch, along with a touchdown.

The Gamecocks recruited him out of Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington, D.C., where he played both football and ran track.

On the football field, he was a tight end and defensive end who was named a two-time Gatorade Player of the Year in the District of Columbia.

He was also a two-time Gatorade Boys Track and Field Player of the Year in the District of Columbia (2021-22). He swept the 100- and 200-meter dashes at the 2021 and 2022 state meets and is the state record-holder in both events.

South Carolina is beginning to schedule executions again after a pause for the holidays, with the state Supreme Court setting the next one for Jan. 31.

The state is looking to carry out death sentences for several inmates who are out of appeals but who had their executions delayed because prison officials could not obtain lethal injection drugs.

Marion Bowman Jr., 44, is set to be put to death at the end of January for his murder conviction in the shooting of a friend whose burned body was found in the trunk of her car in Dorchester County in 2001.

Bowman’s lawyers said Friday that he maintains his innocence. His lawyers also argue that putting him to death would be “unconscionable” due to unresolved doubts about his conviction.

SOUTH CAROLINA INMATE DIES BY LETHAL INJECTION, ENDING STATE’S 13-YEAR PAUSE ON EXECUTIONS

He would be the third inmate executed since September after the state obtained lethal injection drugs. The first two — Freddie Owens, who was put to death on Sept. 20, and Richard Moore, who was executed on Nov. 1 — chose to die by lethal injection, but inmates can also choose electrocution or a new firing squad.

Three additional inmates are awaiting execution dates. The state Supreme Court ruled that executions can be set five weeks apart.

The court could have set Bowman’s execution date as early as Dec. 6, but the court accepted without comment a request from lawyers for the four inmates awaiting execution to delay the executions until January.

“Six consecutive executions with virtually no respite will take a substantial toll on all involved, particularly during a time of year that is so important to families,” the lawyers wrote in court documents.

Attorneys representing the state responded that prison officials were prepared to maintain the original schedule and that the state had conducted executions around Christmas and New Year’s in the past, including five between Dec. 4, 1998, and Jan. 8, 1999.

Once one of the busiest states for executions, South Carolina had a 13-year pause on executions before resuming this past fall due to trouble obtaining lethal injection drugs after its supply expired because of pharmaceutical companies’ concerns that they would have to disclose that they had sold the drugs to state officials. But the state legislature passed a shield law two years ago allowing officials to keep lethal injection drug suppliers private.

In July, the state Supreme Court cleared the way to resume executions.

Death row inmates can also ask Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, for clemency, but no governor in the state has ever reduced a death sentence to life in prison without parole in the modern era of the death penalty.

This photo shows the state’s death chamber in Columbia, South Carolina, including the electric chair, right, and a firing squad chair, left. (South Carolina Department of Corrections via AP)

South Carolina’s prisons director has until next week to confirm that lethal injection, the electric chair and the newly added option of a firing squad are all available options for Bowman.

The last time an inmate in the U.S. was executed by a firing squad was in Utah in 2010, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Bowman was convicted of killing Kandee Martin, 21, in 2001. Several friends and family members testified against him as part of plea deals they reached with prosecutors.

One friend said Bowman was upset because Martin owed him money, while a second testified that Bowman believed Martin was wearing a recording device to have him arrested.

Bowman’s lawyers asked the state Supreme Court to delay his execution to allow a hearing on his last-ditch appeal arguing that his trial lawyer was not prepared and had too much sympathy for the white victim and not his black client.

His current lawyers said Friday that he did not receive a fair trial and lacked effective legal representation.

Bowman’s trial lawyer pressured him to plead guilty and “made other poor decisions based on his racist views rather than strategic legal counsel,” according to Lindsey S. Vann, executive director of the inmate-advocacy group Justice 360.

SOUTH CAROLINA EXECUTES RICHARD MOORE DESPITE BROADLY SUPPORTED PLEA TO CUT SENTENCE TO LIFE

The room where inmates are executed in Columbus, South Carolina. (South Carolina Department of Corrections via AP)

“His conviction was based on unreliable, incentivized testimony from biased witnesses who received reduced or dropped sentences in exchange for their cooperation,” wrote Vann, who issued the statement on behalf of Bowman’s legal team.

South Carolina has executed 45 inmates since the death penalty was resumed in the U.S. in 1976. In the early 2000s, the state was carrying out an average of three executions per year. Only nine states have killed more inmates.

Since the unintentional execution pause starting in 2011, the state’s death row population has been reduced significantly.

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The state had 63 death row inmates in early 2011, but now only has 30. About 20 inmates have been removed from death row and received different sentences after successful appeals, while others have died of natural causes.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.