WOMEN'S TOP 25 After lackluster half, center keys Georgia

Kara Braxton scored a season-high 26 points for the Bulldogs.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATLANTA -- Kara Braxton bounced back from a lackluster first half -- not to mention a tongue-lashing from coach Andy Landers -- and made sure Georgia restored its dominance over Georgia Tech.
Braxton scored eight of her season-high 26 points in an early second-half run, leading No. 12 Georgia to a 78-62 victory over the Yellow Jackets on Saturday in the Russell Athletic Shootout.
"After the motivational speech in the locker room at halftime, I think I came out and played better in the second half," Braxton said, a small smile forming on her face.
Braxton had a miserable first half. She was only 3-for-12 and missed a 3-pointer badly, which led Landers to yank her from the game.
He talked to her sternly on the bench for several seconds, but she started the second half and finished 8-for-20. The 6-foot-6 Braxton and the 6-5 Christi Thomas dominated throughout, including that stretch soon after halftime when the Bulldogs pulled away.
"We started shooting fallaways and 3-pointers," Landers said. "We're not very good at that. We had this discussion at halftime, and we came out and put our 6-6 and our 6-5 rear ends on the block, and you see what happened."
Thomas added 13 points for the Lady Bulldogs (8-2), who lost to Georgia Tech for the first time ever in last year's shootout. Georgia is 25-1 in the series.
Fallon Stokes had 23 points and Megan Isom added 11 for Georgia Tech (7-3), which had no answer for the inside tandem of Braxton and Thomas. Then again, few teams do.
No. 17 LSU 75, Florida St. 68
ATLANTA -- The guard trio of Doneeka Hodges, Temeka Johnson and Seimone Augustus made sure LSU didn't need much from inside the paint.
Hodges and Johnson each scored 20 points and Augustus added 14 to help the 17th-ranked Lady Tigers hold off Florida State in the Russell Athletic Shootout.
"It's been a work in progress for us," LSU coach Sue Gunter said. "We've relied on these three girls and they've carried the mail for us, period."
Genesis Choice had 15 for the Seminoles (6-4), who lost for the third time in five games. They haven't beaten a ranked team since Feb. 8, 2001, a 71-69 victory over No. 4 Duke.
The Lady Tigers (10-2) fought off several rallies in the second half to win their ninth straight, despite only 19 points from their four interior players.
No. 9 Stanford 88, Oregon St. 65
STANFORD, Calif. -- Sebnem Kimyacioglu scored 16 of her career-high 24 points in the first half in a Pac-10 opener.
Kristen Newlin added 16 points as the Cardinal (8-2, 1-0) improved to 19-0 at home against the Beavers. Chelsea Trotter scored 13 points and Azella Perryman had 12.
Junior transfer Shannon Howell, playing in her first game with the Beavers (6-4, 0-1), scored a career-high 32 points as Oregon State had its three-game road winning streak snapped. Howell transferred from Nebraska in the winter of 2002.
Leilani Estavan had seven points and two assists to became the first player in Oregon State history with 500 assists and 900 points.
Stanford played without All-American senior forward Nicole Powell, who severely sprained her left ankle in a loss to Texas Tech a week ago. She's not scheduled to play on Monday against Oregon.
Oregon State sophomore guard Ebony Young missed the game after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in her left nee against Cincinnati in mid-December.
Stanford held the Beavers scoreless for nearly six minutes of the first half and scored 20 unanswered points during a 28-2 run that made it 36-9 with 7:56 left in the half.
Trotter and Newlin accounted for 19 of the 28 points, while Oregon State missed eight consecutive shots and committed three turnovers.
The Cardinal led by as many as 29 points in the first half.
Oregon State had shot better than 50 percent in each of its previous four games.
The Beavers scored the final six points of the first half, closing to 49-26 at halftime.