South Carolina 82, Mississippi 58
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) _ Shaunzinski Gortman scored 24 points and Jocelyn Penn added 23 as No. 10 South Carolina beat Mississippi 82-58 on Sunday.

Gortman, who was honored before the game on senior day, was 10-of-16 from the field, including 4-of-7 from 3-point range, and had eight rebounds and five assists.

South Carolina, which led by seven points at halftime, went on a 24-3 run over the opening seven minutes of the second half to take a 58-30 lead.

Ole Miss was 1-of-13 from the field during the stretch and committed six turnovers. The Lady Rebels shot 26.1 percent (18-of-69) for the game with 18 turnovers.

The win locks up the second seed in the Southeastern Conference tournament for the Lady Gamecocks (22-5, 10-4). Before this season, South Carolina had never finished better than sixth.

The victory also goes a long way in South Carolina's quest to play host to the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament. The Lady Gamecocks, who were last in the NCAA tournament in 1992, finished this season 14-1 at the Carolina Coliseum.

Carletta Brown led the Lady Rebels (11-16, 3-11) with 16 points, while Von Kirk added 12 and Ally Kelly 11. Tywanna Inmon had 10 rebounds for Ole Miss.

The Lady Rebels will finish 10th in the SEC and need to win the league tournament to have any shot at postseason play. Ole Miss last went to the NCAA tournament in 1996.

Petra Ujhelyi had eight points and nine rebounds for South Carolina, while Cristina Ciocan had 11 assists.

Vanderbilt 72, Auburn 54
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) _ Chantelle Anderson scored a game-high 19 points to lead No. 6 Vanderbilt to a 72-54 win over Auburn on Sunday in the final regular season game for both teams.

With the victory, Vanderbilt (24-6, 10-4) clinched a first-round bye in the upcoming Southeastern Conference Tournament in Nashville. The Commodores will open play in Friday's quarterfinal round.

Vanderbilt scored the game's first 11 points, including eight by Zuzi Klimesova.

Auburn (15-12, 3-11) responded with five points on back-to-back possessions, but the Commodores continued to roll offensively with a pair of 3-pointers from Abi Ramsey and another from Jenni Benningfield to take a 26-11 lead 12 minutes into the game.

With a 35-22 halftime cushion, Anderson scored 10 points in the first five minutes of the second period to help Vanderbilt pull away. Jillian Danker hit a pair of free throws with 4:43 remaining to give the Commodores a 69-43 lead.

Klimesova finished with 14 points for Vanderbilt.

Le'Coe Willingham scored 17 to lead Auburn, with Natasha Brackett adding 13.

Tennessee 89, Kentucky 64
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Kara Lawson scored 18 points and reserve Brittany Jackson added 11 Sunday as No. 4 Tennessee withstood a tough first half to beat Kentucky 89-64.

The Wildcats (8-19, 1-13 Southeastern Conference) led most of the first half after a strong start before the Lady Vols (24-3, 13-1) took over in the second half.

Kentucky, which has lost 21 straight times to Tennessee, led by a surprising 10 points early and was tied at 42 going into halftime.

But the Lady Vols rallied to win on Senior Day and extend their SEC home winning streak to 40 games.

After Shambrica Jones tied the score at 49 for Kentucky with 16:33 to go, Lawson hit a 3 and then a driving layup to start a 16-2 run that put Tennessee ahead for good.

The Wildcats didn't score for 5½ minutes. By the time SeSe Helm made a free throw, Tennessee was already ahead by 18. The Wildcats couldn't rally.

Helm led Kentucky with 18 points and Rita Adams added 10.

Shyra Ely added 10 points and seven rebounds for Tennessee.

Coach Pat Summitt started seniors Michelle Snow, Shalon Pillow and Amanda Canon, who had never started a game before in her career.

Snow, who has started off and on throughout the year, didn't play much of the second half. But when the crowd started chanting her name with six minutes to go, Summitt put her back in.

The crowd chanted "dunk it Snow" to get Snow to dunk for the first time ever at home, but it didn't happen. April McDivitt lobbed an alley-oop pass toward the basket to entice a dunk, but that didn't work either.

Snow finished with nine points and seven rebounds.

Kentucky took the lead early. The Wildcats made six of their first seven shots to go ahead 14-6 with 16:35 to go in the first half.

Brittany Jackson's 3 drew Tennessee to within 16-14 two minutes later, but Kentucky had an 11-3 run to follow for a 27-17 lead with 11:27 to go.

Tennessee didn't get its first lead until 4:22 to go before halftime after Michelle Munoz made a jumper to cap a 15-4 run that made it 32-31.

Mississippi St 83, Florida 63
STARKVILLE, Miss. (AP) -- LaToya Thomas scored 40 points as Mississippi State snapped a four-game losing streak in the Southeastern Conference with an 83-63 victory over No. 16 Florida on Sunday.

Thomas, the SEC's leading scorer, was 14-for-22 from the field and 12-for-12 from the free throw line. She also had 14 rebounds for the Lady Bulldogs (18-10, 8-6).

Brandi McCain led Florida (18-9, 8-6) with 23 points and Vanessa Hayden had 19 points and four blocked shots.

The Lady Gators shot just 35 percent from the field.

Jennifer Fambrough, returning to the Lady Bulldogs' lineup after missing four games while recovering from back surgery, had 18 points and eight rebounds.

Fambrough, the team's only senior, was playing her final home game. She was not expected to return from her injury until the postseason.

Thomas scored eight points as the Lady Bulldogs ended the first half on a 12-0 run that gave them a 45-28 halftime lead.

Florida cut the lead to 47-43 on a layup by Monique Cardenas with 14:19 left.

But the Lady Bulldogs went on a 14-0 run, with Thomas scoring the final six points, to open up a 61-43 lead with 8:46 left.

Mississippi State shot 49 percent.

Alabama 82, LSU 73
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- The Alabama Crimson Tide's Beth Vice and Katie Sipe combined for 12 three-point field goals and that duo proved to be too much for the LSU Lady Tigers to overcome Sunday afternoon at Coleman Coliseum as the Tide downed LSU, 82-73.

The loss closed the regular season for the Lady Tigers with a 15-10 record and an 8-6 SEC mark, while Alabama helped its NCAA chances by finishing at 7-7 and 17-10 overall.

LSU's next action will be in the Southeastern Conference women's tournament, set to begin Thursday at the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville. The Tigers, thanks to Mississippi State's win over Florida on Sunday, finish in a tie for fourth with the Bulldogs and will pick up the fourth seed and a first-round bye because of LSU's win earlier this week over State.

The Tigers will play the opening game of the night session Friday at 6 p.m. CST against the winner of a Thursday night game involving fifth seed Mississippi State and 12th seed Kentucky. That game will be broadcast in Baton Rouge on the LSU Sports Network (107.3 FM in Baton Rouge) and on the Internet at That game will be televised by Fox Sports South and SEC-TV. There was no announcement late Sunday as to whether Fox Sports Southwest would carry the game in the Baton Rouge area.

LSU was led by Temeka Johnson with 19 points and seven assists as she played all 40 minutes. Aiysha Smith added 18 points (13 rebounds), with Doneeka Hodges getting 11 and Ke-Ke Tardy 10. Hodges, one of LSU's main three-point friends, struggled outside the arc, hitting just one of nine attempts. The Tide got 21 points on Katie Sipe's seven-of-nine three-point shooting, while Beth Vice's five treys paced her 19 point effort. LaNisha Cartwell added 14 points and Shondra Johnson 10.

The Lady Tigers hung with Alabama throughout the first half, going from a 12-7 lead with 15:10 to go in the opening half to as much as an eight point deficit, 31-23, on back-to-back Sipe treys. But LSU then proceeded to go on a 10-2 run to tie the game at 33-33 with 2:52 to go in the half. Late in the half, Vice would hit back-to-back three-pointers for the Tide, but Johnson hit a desperation shot from near half-court at the buzzer to cut the Alabama halftime lead to just one, 41-40.

But it was a half that had LSU Coach Sue Gunter worried as the points mounted.

"I don't think we were really ready to play," said Gunter afterwards. "I was disappointed in our overall attitude. It's not that we didn't know those two could hit threes. It's not that wasn't part of our game plan. We just couldn 't get out and get on them and that was the ball game. We were lethargic on defense. We go in at halftime and we're down one, but we've given up 40 points. We can't beat people giving up forty in a half."

Gunter felt the first five minutes of the second half would be a big key in this game and to Alabama it proved to be, as Vice and Sipe came out of the dressing room, each hitting three and then Cartwell scored to put the Tide up, 49-40, 2:30 into the half. But the time the half was six minutes old, LSU found itself needing to rally from an 11-point margin.

LSU got the game workable, hovering in the five-to-seven point range for several minutes, and eventually cut the game to three, 61-58, on two Doneeka Hodges free throws with 7:15 to play.

But again, Vice hit a trey, Johnson a layup and Sipe a three and the margin was again 11, 69-58, with just six minutes to go.

"I thought we tried hard to bring it back the second half, but it just wasn' t there," said Gunter. "We just had some mental lapses. I've got to give Alabama credit, it was a tremendously important game to them. But I don't our kids understand where we are and how badly we need to win. Now we've got to go into the SEC Tournament and beat teams that we've already played to get enough wins to qualify for the tournament."

"It was an outstanding win for our team," said Alabama Coach Rick Moody. "If we wanted a chance to go to the postseason, we needed to win today. Anytime you look at our box score, there are a couple of numbers that determine the game. The balance in scoring was a big number, with four people in double digits."

Arkansas 66, Georgia 45
FAYETTEVILLE -- Sophomore Shameka Christon had 18, junior India Lewis 17 and Dana Cherry 15 as the Arkansas Lady Razorbacks upset 23rd-ranked Georgia, 66-45, in the Southeastern Conference regular season finale for both teams.

The win gives Arkansas (17-10) a 7-7 record in conference play heading into the SEC Tournament in Nashville, Tenn. The Lady'Backs are the seventh seed, opening the tournament at 2:15 p.m. in the afternoon on Thursday, Feb. 28, against 10th-seeded Ole Miss.

It was also the first victory for Arkansas over Georgia in SEC play, breaking a 15-game losing streak to the Lady Bulldogs. The only time Arkansas had ever defeated Georgia was back in the 1990 NCAA tournament when the Lady Razorbacks were still a member of the now defunct Southwest Conference.

Georgia (18-9) drops to 6-8 in league play and faces Alabama in the first round at noon. Alabama defeated LSU, 82-73, to tie with Arkansas in the standings, but the Lady'Backs win the tiebreaker over the Crimson Tide.

Defense was the difference as Arkansas held Georgia to its lowest point total of the season. The Lady'Backs did it by forcing a season-high 33 turnovers from the Lady Bulldogs.

"Our offense was not as spectacular as it has been," Lewis said. "But out defensive intensity was there and that's what set the tone for the game."

Arkansas shot 25.9% for the first half and only 38.8% for the game.

"We had tremendous intensity on defense," Christon added. "Their inside game was the key and we just had to stop them."

"This was the best that our press has been this season since we beat Boston College at the start of the year," UA head coach Gary Blair said. "Forcing that many turnovers against a talented team like Georgia we need to give a lot of credit to our guards."

Arkansas caused a turnover-a-minute during the first half, building a 13-point early lead before poor shooting allowed the Lady Bulldogs to close to within seven, 27-20, at halftime.

"The turnovers were ridiculous," UG head coach Andy Landers said. "Our decision making on the floor was very disappointing. They defensed us well and we wilted under their halfcourt pressure."

The Lady'Backs turned on the offense in the second, hitting 54.5% from the field.

Georgia cut the Arkansas lead to three, 36-33, early in the second half, but an 8-0 run spurred by back-to-back three-pointers from Christon and Shanna Harmon put the Lady'Backs up by 11, 44-33, with 10 minutes to play.

The Lady Bulldogs got to eight, 48-40, with six minutes to play, but Arkansas' defense clamped down as the Lady'Backs ran Georgia 18-1 over the next five minutes.

When Arkansas needed offense, it was a rotation of what Blair has called his "Big Three" that beat back the Lady Bulldogs.

"We all know our roles on this team, and that's our greatest asset," Christon said. "When one of us isn't scoring, there are two others who can pick it up."

Arkansas had 17 steals from the Lady Bulldogs, holding Georgia to a single player in double digits.

The game was a near-reversal of the last meeting between the two teams when Georgia beat Arkansas 63-44 in the semifinals of the SEC Tournament in Memphis.