College basketball game of the week: No. 11 South Carolina vs. No. 13 Auburn

As the college basketball season marches on, the stakes are getting higher, and the matchups are becoming more intense.

On Wednesday, Feb. 14, the No. 11 South Carolina Gamecocks are set to clash with the No. 13 Auburn Tigers in a highly anticipated showdown that promises to be a battle of two powerhouses.

These two teams come into this matchup looking to establish themselves as real contenders before we head into March and would gain a lot of confidence as the games become more intense.

The Auburn Tigers have been very good at home so far this season and they look to extend their home winning streak to 13 games if they can defeat the Gamecocks on Wednesday night.

They are coming off a loss to the Florida Gators and saw their three-game winning streak come to an end.

The Gators were up by as many as 29 in the second half before the Tigers made things somewhat interesting at the end.

Coach Bruce Pearl was very unhappy with his team's effort and will have his team prepared to come out with some passion on Wednesday Night.

The Tigers look to turn the page and will look to jump out and establish an early lead vs. the Gamecocks and to get their wild student section evolved as much as possible on home court.

Auburn has made 46.3% of its shots from the field so far this season, which is 4.8 percentage points higher than South Carolina, which has allowed its opponents 41.5%.

Some players that will be crucial in this game for the Tigers are Johni Broome and Aden Holloway.

Broome is shooting 55.5% and averaging 16.0 points, while Holloway is averaging 1.2 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games for Auburn.

If these two play a solid game for the full time then the Tigers should be in great shape to defeat the Gamecocks by a large margin in this matchup.

Two weeks ago, South Carolina was unranked. Now they are ranked No. 11 in the country and are playing really good team basketball currently.

The Gamecocks are riding a seven-game win streak and their last victory game was on Saturday against Vanderbilt where South Carolina outscored the Commodores 47-28 in the second half and went on to win the game 75-60.

Freshman forward Colin Murray-Boyles put up a career-high 31 points on 14-of-17 shooting while also adding seven boards on the day.

One player who could be a big factor in this upcoming game vs the Tigers is their star guard Meechie Johnson Jr.

Johnson Jr. is shooting 33.6% from beyond the arc with 1.9 made 3-pointers per game for the Gamecocks while averaging 14.1 points.

He also is averaging 14 points and 5.1 rebounds over the past 10 games for the Gamecocks.

Christian Holtzapple is a fourth-year student majoring in broadcast journalism, To contact him email cmh7064@psu.edu.