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Florida Defeats Mississippi State 69-62

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GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- Vernon Macklin and Chandler Parsons each scored 20 points to lead Florida to a 69-62 victory over Mississippi State on Saturday.

Florida (17-6, 6-3 Southeastern Conference) snapped a two-game losing streak in the series. The Gators' last victory over the Bulldogs came Jan. 24, 2007. Mississippi State (16-7, 4-4) has lost four of its last five games.

Ravern Johnson finished with 20 points and Jarvis Varnado added 16 points and 13 rebounds for Mississippi State. Florida had a 12-point lead with 2:38 to play, but struggled to close out the game.

The Bulldogs scored seven unanswered points to cut the lead to 61-56. Johnson and Barry Stewart each hit 3-pointers in the final minute, cutting Florida's lead to 66-62 with 22.4 seconds to play.

Parsons and Erving Walker combined to hit three free throws to close out the final seconds.

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Arkansas Goes To Overtime To Capture 82-79 Victory Over Auburn

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.-- Courtney Fortson scored 24 points - including nine in a row late in overtime - to lead Arkansas over Auburn 82-79 on Saturday.

Fortson's 3-pointer broke a 71-71 tie, and he later hit from the perimeter and made two free throws with 40.6 seconds left to make it 78-73. After an Auburn miss, Fortson made a layup for a seven-point lead.

Auburn (11-12, 2-6 Southeastern Conference) had forced overtime with Andre Malone's layup on wild play in the final seconds of regulation. The Tigers nearly tied it again on the final play of overtime, but Frankie Sullivan's midcourt shot hit the back of the rim. Arkansas (12-11, 5-3) has won four straight.

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Kentucky Runs Past LSU 81-55

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BATON ROUGE, La.-- DeMarcus Cousins had 17 points and 12 rebounds for his sixth consecutive double-double and No. 4 Kentucky cruised past LSU 81-55 on Saturday.

The Wildcats (22-1, 7-1 Southeastern Conference) trailed 6-1 until John Wall hit a jumper 4:29 into the game. They needed only 3 minutes to erase LSU's lead and went on to lead 42-14 at halftime.

LSU (9-14, 0-9) shot less than 19 percent from the field in the first half and finished at 26.7 percent overall (21 of 66). Bo Spencer was the only LSU player to score in double figures, finishing with 10 points.

The Tigers played scrappy defense, but had a hard time slowing down the much bigger and faster Wildcats, who average 82.4 points a game. Kentucky outscored LSU 34-14 in the paint and allowed the Tigers no second-chance or fast-break points.

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Tennessee Rolls Past South Carolina 79-53

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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Wayne Chism scored a career-high 30 points as No. 14 Tennessee routed South Carolina 79-53 on Saturday night.

Chism was 11 for 17 from the field, including two 3-pointers, and hit 6 of 8 free throws. His previous high of 27 points came against Auburn on March 14, 2009. The Vols (18-4, 6-2 Southeastern Conference) won their sixth straight over the Gamecocks (13-9, 4-4).

Tennessee took control with a 9-0 run for a 27-12 lead with 3:05 left in the first half. South Carolina, which shot 27.6 percent in the game, couldn't stop Tennessee's inside game. The Vols finished with 40 points in the paint. Devan Downey, who entered the game averaging 31.6 points in SEC play, finished with 26 points for the Gamecocks.

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Warren's 21 Pushes Ole Miss Past Alabama 74-67

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OXFORD, Miss. -- Chris Warren scored 21 points to help No. 25 Mississippi come back from 19 points down to beat Alabama 74-67 Saturday night.

Terrence Henry had 20 points and eight rebounds for the Rebels (17-6, 5-4 Southeastern) who snapped a two-game losing streak.

The Rebels made 22 of 29 free throws in the second half. Ole Miss was down 43-24 a minute into the first half, but slowly chipped away until Terrico White's tip-in with 6:11 left put the Rebels up 58-56.

White, Warren and Henry combined to hit four free throws in the final 28 seconds to send Alabama (13-10, 3-6) to its third straight loss. JaMychal Green led the Crimson Tide with 18 points and added seven rebounds. Tony Mitchell had 16 points and eight rebounds.

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Georgia Rallies To Beat Vanderbilt 72-58

 

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ATHENS, Ga. -- Travis Leslie scored 13 of his 17 points in the second half and Georgia rallied to beat No. 18 Vanderbilt 72-58 Saturday night. Georgia (10-11 overall, 2-6) appeared bound for its fourth straight Southeastern Conference loss when it trailed 36-28 early in the second half.

The Bulldogs stopped turning over the ball and rallied to give Vanderbilt (17-5, 6-2) its second loss in its last 13 games. Georgia led 68-54 following back-to-back 3-pointers by Vincent Williams and Ricky McPhee.

Jermaine Beal led Vanderbilt with 21 points. Brad Tinsley added 18, but the Commodores found too little scoring support for the two guards. Beal and Tinsley made 9 of 13 shots from the field in the first half, but their teammates were 1 for 18. Vanderbilt made only 20 of 61 shots overall.

Georgia prevented Vanderbilt from its first 4-1 start in SEC road games since the 1966-67 season. Trey Thompkins had 15 points for Georgia, which won for the first time since beating then-No. 8 Tennessee on Jan. 23. Georgia finished with 21 turnovers, 13 in the first half.

The turnover problems were the continuation of a trend for the last-place team in the SEC East. The Bulldogs were worst in the league with 117 turnovers in their first seven SEC games. Vanderbilt had big leads of 36-28 and 39-32 early in the second half before Georgia reclaimed the lead with a 10-2 run. Dustin Ware, who had 10 points, and McPhee had 3-pointers in the run.

Two free throws by Leslie with 12:01 remaining gave the Bulldogs a 42-41 lead.