STARKVILLE — The reigning Southeastern Conference regular-season champion Mississippi State women’s basketball team will play home-and-home games against LSU, Ole Miss, and South Carolina as part of a league schedule released Thursday.
Last season, MSU recorded its first 16-0 run through the regular season to win the its first SEC title. This season, five of MSU’s eight home league games will be against opponents that played in the NCAA tournament in the 2017-18 season.
“The Southeastern Conference schedule is always a grind. In our mind, it’s 16 rivalry games,” MSU coach Vic Schaefer, the 2018 SEC and Naismith Coach of the Year, said. “In this league, you have to be ready to play every night because if you’re not you’re not only going to get beat but you’ll get embarrassed. We have a tough opener on the road, but thanks to our non-conference schedule we will be ready.”
MSU’s quest to repeat will begin Jan. 3, 2019, at Arkansas. It marks the 14th time in the last 18 years MSU has started SEC play away from Starkville.
MSU will open its home SEC schedule Jan. 6 against Kentucky. It will play host to Georgia on Jan. 10 at Humphrey Coliseum.
MSU will play Auburn on Monday, Jan. 14, in Auburn, Alabama, before playing host to South Carolina on Jan. 17. MSU will travel to Columbia, South Carolina, for the regular-season finale March 3.
Following a Jan. 24 trip to Florida, MSU will close the opening month of league play with the first of two matchups against Ole Miss and LSU.
Fans are encouraged to wear black and fill the Hump Jan. 27 as MSU seeks its 10th-straight victory in the rivalry against Ole Miss. MSU will travel to Oxford on Feb. 21.
MSU will head to LSU Jan. 31 seeking a third-straight victory in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. MSU will wrap the regular-season home slate against LSU on Feb. 28.
MSU will begin the final full month of the regular season Feb. 3 at Alabama. The team’s final open date of the season comes before it returns to the Hump for games against Tennessee (Feb. 10) and Missouri (Feb. 14).
Road trips to Texas A&M (Feb. 17) and Ole Miss (Feb. 21) precede the final two home games against Vanderbilt on Feb. 24 and LSU on Feb. 28.
After wrapping the regular season at South Carolina, MSU returns to the state for the SEC tournament on March 6-10 in Greenville.
Times and television dates will be announced at a later time.
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