KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Reserve Alicia Manning scored a career-high 22 points and No. 4 Tennessee beat South Carolina 82-60 on Thursday night, extending its winning streak in the series to 40.
Manning hit a three-pointer to cap an early 17-2 run that gave the Lady Volunteers a 21-7 lead with 10:07 left in the first half. After going 8:12 without hitting a field goal, South Carolina got back-to-back three-pointers by Markeshia Grant and a layup from Ieasia Walker to cut Tennessee’s margin to 21-5.
The Gamecocks got one point closer a few minutes later off a three-point play by Walker. Another Manning three-pointer pushed Tennessee’s lead back into double digits with 1:32 to go before halftime, and the Lady Vols (25-2, 13-0 SEC) pulled away quickly in the second half.
Shekinna Stricklen (Morrilton) added 12 points and 10 rebounds for Tennessee.
Walker scored 16 points for South Carolina (15-11, 7-6), which hasn’t beaten Tennessee since Jan. 23, 1980.
“I think we passed the ball well. We had a lot of assists tonight,” Walker said. “We need to move a little bit quicker, but we had a lot of good things we can take from this game.” GEORGIA 69, NO. 19 KENTUCKY 51
ATHENS, Ga. - Meredith Mitchell scored 16 points and Georgia (20-6, 10-3 SEC) rolled past No. 19 Kentucky (19-7, 8-5) to remain in second place in the SEC.
The cold-shooting Wildcats, who have lost three of four, got no closer than 13 points in the second half.
Porsha Phillips had 14 points and 16rebounds, and Jasmine James also had 14 points as each Georgia starter scored at least 10 points. Jasmine Hassell had 13 points and 11 rebounds, while Khaalidah Miller had 10 points.
Kentucky senior Victoria Dunlap, the SEC’s leading scorer, had 14 points and 11 rebounds. Bernisha Pinkett scored 12 points.
Kentucky averages 72.6 points per game, third in the SEC, but finished below that mark for the fifth consecutive game. The Wildcats shot a season-low 28.1 percent, making 18 of 64 shots from the field.
Kentucky’s A’dia Mathies had to leave the game for about five minutes in the second half after she was hit on her jaw by Ronika Ransford’s shoulder midway through the second half.
TOP 25 MEN NO. 23 TEMPLE 73, RICHMOND 53
PHILADELPHIA - Ramone Moore scored 24 points, Juan Fernandez had 20 and No. 23 Temple (20-5, 10-2 Atlantic 10) used a 16-0 run to beat Richmond (20-7, 9-3).
The Spiders were one of the hottest road teams in the nation and the Owls had dominated on their home court. Temple kept its streak going, winning its 20th consecutive home game. Richmond snapped an eight-game road winning streak, thesecond-longest in the nation.
Temple’s defense produced 10 turnovers and the Spiders were forcing poor shots down the stretch in an effort to catch up.
NO. 12 ARIZONA 79, WASHINGTON STATE 70
TUCSON, Ariz. - Derrick Williams had 26 points and eight rebounds, and No. 12 Arizona (22-4, 11-2 Pacific-10) withstood a big night from Klay Thompson to hold off Washington State (17-9, 7-7).
Williams had been relatively quiet the previous two games, scoring a combined 23 points as he tried to fight through collapsing defenses and the bulky bandage on his sore right pinkie. Neither the defense nor the still-bandaged pinkie bothered him this night.
Williams got to the rim and the line, hitting 7 of 10 shots and all 12 of his free throws. He also got some help from Solomon Hill, who scored all of his 12 points in the second half to give Arizona its 14th consecutive home victory.
Thompson, the Pac-10’s leading scorer, tried to carry Washington State with 30 points, but a shaky start to the second half put the Cougars in too big of a hole.
SEC MEN ALABAMA 67, LSU 56
BATON ROUGE - JaMychal Green scored 18 points and Alabama (17-8, 9-2 SEC) beat LSU (10-16, 2-9), giving the Crimson Tide 12 victories in 14 games while extending the Tigers’ losing streak to nine.
Trevor Releford had 15 points for Alabama, sending LSU fans to the exits with his driving floater as he was fouled with 2:12 left that put Alabama ahead 65-56. Tony Mitchell added 13, snapping his string of four consecutive games with 20 or more points.
Ralston Turner scored 17 points and Malcolm White 14 for LSU.
SUN BELT MEN LOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE 64, ARKANSAS STATE 61
LAFAYETTE, La. - Rashad Allison scored a game-high 26 points, but Arkansas State (14-14, 8-5 Sun Belt Conference) fell to Louisiana-Lafayette (11-14, 8-5) at the Cajundome.
J.J. Thomas had 20 points for the Ragin’ Cajuns, who have won eight consecutive.
The Red Wolves trailed 29-18 at halftime.
Sports, Pages 20 on 02/18/2011