DULUTH — Jasmine Hassell scored 19 points, Tiaria Griffin added 15 and No. 12 Georgia snapped No. 22 LSU’s seven-game winning streak with a 71-53 victory in the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference tournament on Friday night.
The Lady Bulldogs (25-5) will face No. 7 Kentucky, an 11-point winner over Vanderbilt, in the semifinals today.
Adrienne Webb finished with 16 points, Theresa Plaisance added 13 and Danielle Ballard had 10 for LSU (20-11).
Advancing to the SEC semifinals for the first time since 2007, Georgia had a double-digit lead for the rest of the game after Jasmine James’ jumper made it 38-27 in the final minute of the first half.
Each of the Lady Bulldogs’ starters scored in double figures with Anne Marie Armstrong adding 12 points, Shacobia Barbee 11 and James 10.
Georgia has won two straight and is 5-1 since losing by eight points at LSU on Feb. 10.
NO. 19 TEXAS A&M 61,
NO. 17 SOUTH CAROLINA 52
DULUTH — Kristi Bellock scored 17 points, Karla Gilbert added 11 in a reserve role and No. 19 Texas A&M beat No. 17 South Carolina in the SEC tournament quarterfinals.
The Aggies (22-9) snapped a three-game losing streak and will play No. 9 Tennessee in the semifinals today.
Ashley Bruner finished with 19 points and Ieasia Walker added 15 for South Carolina (24-7).
NO. 9 TENNESSEE 82,
FLORIDA 73
DULUTH — Meighan Simmons scored 20 points and Tennessee turned back Florida’s late rally to beat the Gators, extending the Lady Vols’ winning streak in the SEC tournament.
No. 9 Tennessee (24-6), the three-time defending champion, has won 10 straight games in the tournament since its loss to Auburn in the 2009 semifinals.
The Lady Vols will face Texas A&M in today’s first semifinal.
Sydney Moss led Florida (18-14) with a career-high 22 points. Moss had a steal and basket with 49 seconds remaining to cut Tennessee’s lead to 75-69 — the Lady Vols’ smallest lead of the half.
NO. 7 KENTUCKY 76,
VANDERBILT 65
DULUTH — A’dia Mathies had 16 points and five steals and No. 7 Kentucky kept its lead in double figures the last 25 minutes of its win over Vanderbilt in the SEC tournament.
The last point Vanderbilt trailed by single digits was at 26-17. Kentucky’s big lead was 22 points at 52-30 early in the second half.
Kentucky (26-4) had an impressive start to its postseason after setting a school record with 13 SEC regular-season wins. The Wildcats closed the regular season with a home win over Tennessee to clinch the No. 2 seed in the tournament.
Kentucky advanced to its fifth semifinal in the last eight years. Its only tournament championship came in 1982.
ACC
NO. 6 DUKE 79, N.C. STATE 65
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Tricia Liston scored 10 of her 26 points during a timely run that carried No. 6 Duke past pesky North Carolina State in an Atlantic Coast Conference quarterfinal.
Freshman Alexis Jones added 17 points for the top-seeded Blue Devils (28-2). They shot under just 44 percent and made a season-high 12 3-pointers, and advance to face No. 23 Florida State (22-8) today in a semifinal.
Marissa Kastanek scored 18 points for the eighth-seeded Wolfpack (16-16).
NO. 23 FSU 70, MIAMI 58
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Alexa Deluzio scored 11 of her 19 points in the final six minutes to lead No. 23 Florida State past Miami in an ACC quarterfinal game.
Chelsea Davis added 15 points and Yashira Delgado had 12 for the fourth-seeded Seminoles (22-8). They won their first ACC tournament game since 2009 — also the last time they reached the semifinals.
NO. 10 MARYLAND 82,
WAKE FOREST 81, OT
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Alyssa Thomas had the first triple-double in ACC tournament history, and No. 10 Maryland beat Wake Forest in overtime in a quarterfinal.
Thomas — the league’s two-time player of the year — had a career-high 32 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists for her second triple-double this season. She helped the second-seeded Terrapins (24-6) sidestep a major scare against a Wake Forest team they beat by 26 points five nights earlier.
Maryland scored the first 10 points of OT, with Thomas starting the run by hitting a twisting layup with 3:45 left. Eight of her points came in overtime to send the Terps into the semifinals for the second straight year.
Chelsea Douglas scored a career-high 31 points for 10th-seeded Wake Forest (13-19), which ran out of steam in overtime and was denied its biggest win since knocking off then-No. 7 Miami in last year’s quarterfinals.
NO. 15 NORTH CAROLINA 62,
BOSTON COLLEGE 57
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Tierra Ruffin-Pratt scored 19 points to help No. 15 North Carolina beat Boston College in the ACC tournament quarterfinals.
Waltiea Rolle added 10 for the third-seeded Tar Heels (27-5), who advanced to Saturday’s semifinals to face 10th-ranked and second-seeded Maryland.
Nicole Boudreau scored 15 for the Eagles (12-19), the second No. 11 seed to win a tournament game with its upset of sixth-seeded Virginia in Thursday’s first round.