Mizzou looks to snap SEC skid in South Carolina rematch

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

After six conference games, Mizzou Men's Basketball is still searching for its first SEC win of the season. On Saturday afternoon, the Tigers have an opportunity to snap that six-game losing skid with a rematch against South Carolina on the road.

These two teams met at Mizzou Arena back on Jan. 13 with South Carolina narrowly defeating Dennis Gates' crew 71-69 in an overtime thriller. Free throws and three-point shooting made the difference in that ballgame. The Tigers shot less than 23% from three-point range as a team, and Mizzou visited the charity stripe just eight times and only drained six of its free throws. On the opposite end of the court, South Carolina made nearly 30% of its three-pointers and 16 of its 18 free throws.

At Thursday's press conference, Dennis Gates and Jordan Butler reflected on the different areas of the team's performance that has led to losses instead of wins.

"When you look at any category of games. It's either assist-to-turnover ratio, you look at free throw shooting and field goal percentage," Gates said. "Those are the three areas that you have to be able to execute in, you've got to be able to win two of three. It cannot be the same two every game."

You can watch the full press conference with Mizzou basketball coach Dennis Gates in the video player below.

"Last game, it was definitely the free throw line. They shot 37 free throws. We shot 10, so that was a big difference, especially against A&M," Butler said.

You can watch the full press conference with Mizzou forward Jordan Butler in the video player below.

Entering Saturday's rematch, South Carolina has won two consecutive games and defeated No. 6 Kentucky 79-62 in its most recent matchup. The Gamecocks are led by Meechie Johnson, who is averaging nearly 17 points per game and is shooting just over 43% from the floor. Gates emphasized some of the adjustments his team has to make in order to leave Colonial Life Arena with a victory.

"We have to make sure the rebounding, the turnovers and things like that are minimized to give ourselves a chance. We have to have a positive assist-to-turnover ratio. We got to take care of the ball. We got to obviously be able to rebound," Gates said. "But, we got to get to that free throw line, and that's important in any game that we play."

Tipoff against South Carolina is scheduled for 12 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 27.