Tied at 38, Gist's jumper with 11:54 to go put the Lady Rebels up for good at 40-38 and sparked a 14-5 spurt as Ole Miss built a 52-43 lead with 7:23 remaining. Southern would never get closer than seven the rest of the way and Ole Miss would lead by as much as 14.

"I thought this was good opening night win for us," said Lady Rebel head coach Ron Aldy. "Tywanna got us going in the first half and we were able to build off her inside game. I also thought we did a good on the boards, especially on the offensive end that gave us some second chance opportunities."

Ole Miss held a 46-29 advantage in rebounds, including grabbing 17 offensive boards for 21 second-chance points. Sophomore Amber Watts grabbed a career-high 13 boards, including six off the offensive glass.

After connecting on only 12-of-31 shots from the field in the first half, Ole Miss shot 48.3 percent in the second half, making 14-of-29 attempts, including 5-of-11 from beyond the arc.

The Lady Rebels held Southern to 34.5 percent from the field for the night, on 19-of-55 shooting.

Senior guard Tommie Walden led the Jaguars with 19 points, while playing 36-of-40 minutes. Junior forward Shere' Cunningham came off the bench to score 13 points.

Ole Miss took a 29-24 lead into halftime, holding Southern without a field goal over the final 6:08 of the half. The Lady Rebels opened the second half with a 7-1 spurt to go up 36-25 on junior Tia Watson's trey at the 18:14 mark.

Watson's three would be the last Lady Rebel field goal for the next five minutes as Southern went on a 10-0 run to pull within one.

Cunningham scored eight of the Jaguars' 10 points during that span. Her lay-up with 16:27 left, the Jaguars' first field goal in nearly 10 minutes, started the spurt, and she capped the run with back-to-back three-pointers to make it 36-35 with 13:38 to go.

Watts stopped the run with a lay-up to put the Lady Rebels back up by three at 38-35, but Walden would drain a three to tie it at 38 with 12:04 remaining.

Ole Miss will next travel to Chicago for the Illinois-Chicago Thanksgiving Tournament. The Lady Rebels open the event against Morgan State on Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

Auburn 74, Prairie View 47
AUBURN, Ala. -- Sophomore Natasha Brackett scored 14 points and senior Le'Coe Willingham added 13 as the Auburn women's basketball team (2-0) defeated Prairie View (0-1) Monday at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum.

Junior Tia Miller contributed eight points and nine rebounds and Nicole Louden scored nine off the bench.

The Tigers trailed by one with 12:42 left in the first half and then went on an 11-0 run to stretch the Auburn lead to 10. With 4:32 remaining in the first, Auburn extended their lead to 20 with a 17-0 run to end the first half.

"It was the first game of their season and Prairie View kept coming at us," head coach Joe Ciampi said. "You can't ask for more than being up by 20 at the half. I saw some people step up for us. Mandisa Stevenson was 5-of-10, Natasha Brackett was 6-of-12 and Nicole Louden came off the bench and was effective for us."

In the second half, Prairie View pulled to within 12, but the Tigers made a 10-0 run to seal the victory 74-47.

Next up for Auburn will be Florida A&M Friday at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum. Tip-off is scheduled for 1 p.m. with Jackson State and Belmont following at 3:15 p.m. in the Auburn Thanksgiving Classic.

No. 3 LSU 88, Florida Atlantic 55
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- Seimone Augustus scored 24 points on 10-of-12 shooting as No. 3 LSU beat Florida Atlantic 88-55 in the Lady Tigers' home opener Monday night.

Augustus shot 7-of-8 for 14 first-half points to help LSU (3-0) open an 11-0 lead in the first 3 1/2 minutes.

Augustus, who has led LSU in scoring in all three games this season, started the early run with a 15-foot jumper from the left wing 11 seconds in, and capped it with another jumper from the same spot. She hit three more shots in succession before her only miss of the opening half midway through the period.

The Owls (0-3) scored on a 3-pointer by Janka Deckerova at the 16:17 mark of the opening half and came as close as 28-20 before halftime.

But back-to-back jump shots by Temeka Johnson and Kisha James increased the Lady Tigers' lead to 44-22 with 2:53 remaining in the first half, and LSU held a 46-29 edge at halftime.

Johnson, LSU's 5-foot-3 point guard and a preseason All-Southeastern Conference selection, got her fourth career double-double with 12 points and a team-high 11 assists.

James added 11 points and Wendolyn Jones 10 for LSU, which hit 59 percent (36-of-61) of its shots from the floor.

LSU opened the second half with a 12-2 run over the first 4:20 to extend its lead to 59-31 when Augustus hit a 13-foot jumper from the left corner. Augustus left with 6:29 remaining and LSU leading 80-43.

Tamica Pierce led Florida Atlantic with 16 points. The Owls shot only 32.8 percent from the field (19-for-58) and missed 25 of their first 27 field-goal attempts in the second half.

Arkansas 76, TCU 66

By JENNY MARBERRY
Associated Press Writer

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) -- India Lewis scored 26 points, 11 from free throws in the second half, to lead No. 17 Arkansas to a 76-66 victory over TCU on Monday.

Tiffany Evans started the scoring in the first quarter with a 3-pointer for TCU (1-1).

Arkansas (2-0) then went on a nine-point scoring run midway through the quarter, starting with a layup by Katrina Nesby, to bring the Lady Razorbacks from behind, 10-9.

On a layup, Tracy Wynn narrowed the margin for TCU, but Arkansas remained ahead 19-13.

Going into the half, the Lady Razorbacks led 37-33, but four free throws within three minutes helped the Lady Frogs recapture the lead.

Lewis answered with a 3-pointer and a pair of free throws to tie the game at 42. In all, Lewis took six trips to the line in the second half. Rochelle Vaughn was fouled and added a duo of her own.

A behind-the-back pass from Dana Cherry to Nesby in front of Arkansas' basket put the Lady Razorbacks up, 58-53, to secure the lead for the rest of the game.

Kentucky 79, Southern Illinois 53
LEXINGTON, Ky. -- It was a tale of two halves as the University of Kentucky women's basketball team clawed back from a four-point deficit at halftime to defeat Southern Illinois, 79-53, in its season opener at Memorial Coliseum on Monday. The win was the fifth consecutive season-opening victory for the Wildcats.

Kentucky (1-0), who trailed 34-30 at the half, outscored the Salukis (0-2) 49-19 in the second half thanks to a 25-3 run sparked by senior guard Rita Adams. Adams paced five Wildcats in double digits with 16 points, 12 coming in the second half.

With junior All-SEC candidate SeSe Helm on the bench in foul trouble, Shambrica Jones and junior Jenerrie Everette picked up the slack in the middle. Everette finished the game with a career-high six points while Jones notched her first career double-double, scoring 13 points and a career-high 11 rebounds.

"What we got from Rita in the second half, we need from her every game," UK Coach Bernadette Mattox said. "It was definitely the tale of two halves. It was our first game and we finally realized in the second half that we had to take care of business. Jenerrie (Everette) also was a spark for us and she knows that is her role. They all gave great effort in the second half."

Helm came back into the game with 10:57 remaining and helped pace an impressive 27-6 Kentucky run to end the game. Helm ended the game with 15 points and six rebounds. Adams also added five rebounds, four assists and four steals. Her four assists moved her past Tiffany Wait into seventh-place on the all-time assist list at UK with 342 career dimes. Sara Potts added 11 points and Keiko Tate rounded out the scoring column with 10.

"I thought we played well defensively, especially defending their best player who came in averaging 15.0 points per game," Mattox said. "We held her to only two points and that hurt them. Our press was also really working tonight and our players didn't want to quit pressing."

The first half consisted of a back-and-forth game in which neither team could move ahead by more than six points. Helm led with nine points in the opening stanza. Jones was tough in the post for Kentucky, scoring eight points and pulling down seven rebounds in the first half. Potts chipped in seven points in the first.

The UK defense, which allowed SIU to shoot 40 percent in the first stanza, improved in the second half, holding the Salukis to just 25 percent from the floor in that frame. SIU shot 32.8 percent for the game while UK hit on 45.5 percent of its field goal attempts. The Cats forced 20 Saluki turnovers in the game, 12 of those in the second half. UK committed only 11 turnovers.

Southern Illinois was led by Katie Berwanger, who led all scorers with 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Tiffany Crutcher added 10 points and nine boards.

UK will next be in action on Friday, Nov. 29, when it travels to Seattle, Wash., for the Seattle Times Husky Classic. The tournament will be played on Nov. 29 and 30. The Cats will play the University of the Pacific at 8 p.m. ET on Friday.