Crispina Correia added 14 points for Auburn, which is 11-0 for the second straight year. Auburn shot 41.8 percent while holding Troy State (3-5) to 26.7 percent.

Auburn expanded its lead in the second half on a 18-5 run capped by Brackett's 3-pointer. That made the score 77-39 with less than four minutes to play.

Thea Herring led the Trojans, who have lost three straight games, with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Chaquita Alexander scored 11.

Auburn led 46-25 at halftime.

Nicole Louden and Nancy Derrick each added nine points for the Tigers.

No. 24 LSU 72, Rice 47
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- Aiysha Smith scored 20 points to lead No. 24 LSU past poor-shooting Rice 72-47 Thursday.

Doneeka Hodges and substitute Scholanda Dorrell added 13 points each, and Roneeka Hodges had 12 for LSU (6-3), which dressed just eight players for the game and made half of the 44 field goals it attempted.

Rice (5-3) made just 28.8 percent of its field-goal attempts (19-for-66) and made only four free throws to LSU's 27.

Johnetta Hayes and substitute LaTonya Sam scored 10 points apiece for Rice.

LSU led 34-20 at halftime.

No. 23 South Carolina 85, No. 16 North Carolina 53
By PETE IACOBELI
AP Sports Writer
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) -- Teresa Geter had 21 points and 15 rebounds and No. 23 South Carolina held No. 16 North Carolina to its lowest point total of the season in a 85-53 victory Thursday night in the ACC-SEC Challenge.

The Lady Gamecocks (10-1) led by as much as 35 points at 84-49 on Tatyana Troina's free throw with 1:06 to go and continued on their best start since opening 10-1 in 1998-89.

The Tar Heels (9-2) could not find the basket and had their poorest shooting game of the season, going 22-of-78 for 28.2 percent. They were outrebounded 61-41.

Nikki Teasley made five 3-pointers in the opening half, but was held scoreless the last 20 minutes. Starter Coretta Brown went 3-of-14 for eight points, half her average.

South Carolina took advantage of every Tar Heel mistake. Penn had three early baskets to put her team up 13-4 as North Carolina went more than five minutes without a point.

When the Tar Heels got to 23-21 on Teasley's 3-pointer, Penn had three more buckets in a 12-4 run.

Teasley had the last of her 3-pointers with 3.1 seconds left in the half to cut South Carolina's edge to 42-37. But North Carolina missed nine shots during the Lady Gamecocks' 11-0 run to start the second half that put the game out of reach.

It was the Tar Heels' biggest margin of defeat since losing 101-58 at Duke on Jan. 27, 2000.

Jocelyn Penn added 20 points and nine rebounds. Shaunzinski Gortman had 15 points for the Lady Gamecocks.

South Carolina notched its second win over a ranked team from the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Lady Gamecocks beat then No. 9 Duke 87-81 in overtime on Nov. 25.

Teasley, who did not start after missing several practices this week with back pain, was the Tar Heels only bright spot early on. The rest of her teammates shot 9-of-30, with Brown going 0-of-4 and Leah Metcalf 0-of-5.

Penn and Geter exploited the middle for South Carolina in the opening period. Penn hit six of her seven shots while Geter was 5-of-7, all from close range.

Mississippi State 88, Pittsburgh 86
CANCUN, Mexico (MSU Sports Information) -- The Lady Bulldogs defeated Pittsburgh 88-86 in their first game of the Sports Tours International Tournament.

Pittsburgh (3-7) led by as many as seven in the first half but MSU (7-2) came back to tie the game at 34 heading into the locker room. State went on a 13-2 run to take its largest lead of the game at 47-36 with just under 17 minutes to play.

Pittsburgh grabbed its first lead of the second half with 2:41 on the clock at 80-79. LaToya Thomas made three-of-four foul shots down the stretch and a jumper to help lift the Lady Bulldogs to victory.

MSU was led by Thomas with 32 points and 13 rebounds. Freshman Tan White scored 23 points, grabbed five boards, recorded two blocks and two steals in a team-high 36 minutes of action.

Lone senior Jennifer Fambrough added 10 points and grabbed seven rebounds while tallying three steals.

Sophomore Seneca Anderson chipped in 15 points off the bench in 20 minutes of action. Also playing 20 minutes off the bench, freshman Rebecca Kates had four points and three rebounds.

MSU shot 52 percent from the field and 40 percent from long-range. The Panthers outrebounded the Lady Bulldogs 41-39.

Mississippi State faces North Carolina State at 3 p.m. Friday in the final game of the tournament. MSU returns to the states on Saturday to take a few days off for Christmas before traveling to Cincinnati, Ohio, for its last two games of 2001.