The final day of the SEC regular season is going down Saturday, and there has been plenty of drama included.

At Mississippi State, the Bulldogs and No. 17 South Carolina went down to the wire in a back-and-forth affair between likely NCAA Tournament teams. The Gamecocks did hold a 6-point lead with 4 minutes remaining but were unable to pull away down the stretch.

Ultimately, regulation would not be enough to decide this one with BJ Mack and Dashawn Davis exchanging free throws in the final 5 seconds to force overtime at 77 points apiece.

In the overtime period, Meechie Johnson and BJ Mack would hit 3-pointers for the Gamecocks while Tolu Smith and Josh Hubbard missed some costly free throws for Mississippi State. Mack would eventually hit some free throws late to ice the game before the fouling party ensued.

South Carolina finished things off with a 93-89 win, led by Mack’s 25 points with 4 Gamecocks hitting double figures. Hubbard led all scorers with 28 points in the loss by the Bulldogs.

Here are the key takeaways with the regular season wrapping up:

NCAA Tournament implications

South Carolina’s spot in the final NCAA Tournament field is secure regardless of what happened Saturday, but Mississippi State is less stable. Prior to the start of games, Joe Lunardi had the Bulldogs as the final team to receive a bye to begin the tournament, meaning MSU is still squarely a bubble team at this point in the season.

The loss alone does not mean Mississippi State will automatically drop in Lunardi’s projections coming out of Saturday. Many other teams are in action, so it’s possible the Bulldogs stay firm either way.

Still, the pressure is on MSU entering the SEC Tournament. Going winless in Nashville would make for an uncomfortable Selection Sunday for Chris Jans’ program.

SEC Tournament seeding

Entering the final day of the regular season, seeding in the SEC was still a muddled mess with South Carolina, Alabama, Auburn and Kentucky all tied for second place to start the day. Mississippi State also started the day tied with LSU for the No. 8 seed in the SEC Basketball Tournament.

With the win, the Gamecocks maintain pace with Alabama who beat Arkansas in an earlier overtime battle. Now, those two teams will wait to find out the results of games between Auburn-LSU and Tennessee-Kentucky to see what the final seeding looks like.

Mississippi State losing drops the Bulldogs into the 9-seed for the time being. Fans can track the latest odds for the postseason via SDS’s sports betting apps.

South Carolina completes best regular season since historic March run

In his second season with the program, Lamont Paris has produced a dramatic turnaround. Saturday’s win means the Gamecocks finish the year with a 25-6 overall record and a 13-5 mark in SEC play.

Those kinds of numbers have not been achieved by the program since the 2016-17 season.

That year, Frank Martin led the Gamecocks to a 26-11 overall record with a 12-6 record in the SEC. South Carolina would punch its NCAA Tournament ticket as a 7-seed, setting the table for a dramatic tournament run.

South Carolina would go on to record its first-ever Final Four appearance with wins over Marquette, Duke, Baylor and Florida before eventually falling to Gonzaga in the national semifinals.

The Gamecocks have not been back to March madness since then, but that streak is about to be broken when Selection Sunday rolls around. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi projected South Carolina as a 6-seed in his latest update, and we’ll see if South Carolina can improve that mark during the SEC Tournament.