Sunday, December 1 at Humphrey Coliseum, Starkville, MS (Noon CT)

Although Loyola got a pretty convincing 59-51 win against Mississippi State last year at the Gentile Arena, this year's matchup in Starkville has the potential to get pretty ugly. Last year, Devon Turk and Christian Thomas combined for 37 of Loyola's 59 points as Ben Averkamp and Jordan Hicks neutralized Mississippi State's big men on the boards. Averkamp and Hicks-- both now graduated-- combined for 18 of Loyola's 40 rebounds and limited Mississippi State's 6'9" 265-pound freshman Gavin Ware and 6'8" 230-pound junior Colin Borchert to a combined 15 points and 10 boards.

While Hicks and Averkamp are gone this year, MSU's Ware and Borchert are back-- both with an additional year of experience-- and leading their team with 14.0 and 11.4 ppg respectively. This year, MSU also has talented 6'5" red shirt freshman guard Andre Applewhite (6.6 ppg, 4.8 rpg) to come off the bench to match up with Christian Thomas.

In five games thus far this year, MSU is outrebounding its opponents by 4.2 rpg and the Bulldogs are undefeated in four tries (against admittedly mediocre opponents) at the Humphrey Coliseum. Furthermore, Mississippi State has proven to be a very good second-half team, outscoring their opponents 201-169, while the Ramblers have committed a series of second-half flops in which they were outscored 273-253. While Mississippi State doesn't shoot the three all that well (33% as a team), they've guarded against the three very well, holding their opponents to only 28% behind the arc. MSU has also taken care of the ball well, causing their opponent to commit 17 more turnovers.

Given Loyola's difficulties on the boards, only having two reliable players over 6'4", and only having one 1-point win in five tries over mediocre opponents away from home, it should be an uphill battle for the Ramblers.

LU Game Notes: http://www.loyolaramblers.com/sports/m- ... 13aac.html

MSU Game Notes (pdf): http://www.hailstate.com/fls/16800/pdf/ ... M_ID=16800

Listen: http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/luc.portal#

Up 22-16 with 6:47 in first half. Osborne out with flu.

Tied up 29-29 at half. Turk with 7, Doyle 6, O'Leary 5.

I'm assuming there's no video feed?

Video feed is a pay deal.

MSU up by 3, 56-53. Ramblers with the ball and about 2 minutes left.

With O'Leary fouling out, i don't like our chances… Stupid Flu…we really needed osborne...

Doyle for 3 to tie,

Come on boys! Our ball, tie game, 46 seconds to go.

Tied at 56 with :42 left. Big three from Doyle, two missed FT for MSU, and a big rebound on second miss by Cody Johnson.

OT, and lucky to get there.