South Carolina routs Mississippi State 75-52

STARKVILLE, Miss. (AP) Zia Cooke scored 19 points and Victaria Saxton added 13 to help No. 4 South Carolina rout 21st-ranked Mississippi State 75-52 on Thursday night.

After scoring just 10 points in the first quarter and trailing by one, South Carolina used a dominant second quarter to take control of the game.

Cooke scored the first eight points to spark a 12-0 run that led to a 36-23 halftime advantage and the Bulldogs never recovered.

Mississippi State (8-6, 3-4 SEC) shot just 22 of 65 from the field in the game as the Bulldogs could never find the bottom of the net consistently despite some good looks inside the paint. Sophomore All-SEC player Rickea Jackson score just two points in the first half before finding some offensive rhythm in the second half and scoring a team-high 15 points.

It was a dominant performance in the paint for the Gamecocks (13-1, 8-0) as they outscored Mississippi State 44-28 inside and had a commanding 51-38 rebounding advantage. The Gamecocks star center Aliyah Boston was held to just six points but totaled 12 rebounds.

Saxton had 11 rebounds for a double-double.

BIG PICTURE:

South Carolina: The win for South Carolina kept them atop the SEC rankings as they look to take a second-straight SEC title.

Mississippi State: The Bulldogs are in the middle of their worst stretch of basketball in seven years. The loss to the Gamecocks was the third-straight for MSU and the first three-game losing streak since 2014.

GAMECHANGER
South Carolina struggled early shooting, going 4-of-14 from the field in the first quarter, but a Zia Cooke bucket at the end of the period jump-started a 14-0 run, with Cooke accounting for the first eight points in the run, which gave Carolina a lead it would not relinquish.

KEY STAT
The Gamecocks, who have struggled from the charity stripe at times this season, went 19-of-22 (.864) from the stripe tonight, their best mark in SEC play,