No. 2 Tennessee Rips South Carolina

The second-ranked Tennessee women’s basketball team is tough enough to beat without giving the Volunteers a head start.

South Carolina found that out Friday night after the Volunteers used a big first-half run to take control on the way to a 92-76 victory over the Gamecocks at Columbia, S.C.

Tennessee, 13-2 overall and 3-0 in the Southeastern Conference, opened with a 9-2 run, then used an 18-0 run midway through the half to open a 34-10 lead on the way to a 49-31 halftime advantage.

“I was very disappointed in the first 10 minutes of the game,” South Carolina Coach Susan Walvius said. “It was very difficult to dig out of that hole we put ourselves in.

“You can’t do that against the second-ranked team in the country.”

Michelle Snow, who led Tennessee with 24 points, had five points during the first-half run, then got 17 in the second half to keep South Carolina at bay.

“We’ve got a great size advantage, and Michelle is working to get the ball,” Tennessee Coach Pat Summitt said. “We did a better job in the second half of getting in front of the defender.”

South Carolina (10-5, 0-2) used a 12-2 run midway through the second half, closing within 61-52 after two free throws by Jocelyn Penn with 10:54 to play.

But Tennessee kept feeding the ball to Snow.

“She’s got a little step-away turnaround jump shot, and that’s very hard to defend,” Walvius said. “I really thought our zone would be more effective against that.”

Cincinnati 70, No. 13 Tulane 59--Portia Flournoy scored 17 points and led two decisive spurts as the Bearcats (8-6, 2-2) upset the Green Wave (14-1, 3-1) in a Conference USA game at Cincinnati, handing the visitors their first loss of the season.

Tulane wasted an 11-point lead in the first half and failed to score for nearly seven minutes in the second half as Cincinnati pulled away.

No. 19 UC Santa Barbara 99, Boise State 72--Erin Buescher scored 19 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead the Gauchos (12-3) over the Broncos (7-7) in a Big West Conference opener at Santa Barbara.

Stacy Clinesmith added 12 points and 12 assists for the Gauchos.

Stephanie Block scored 24 points on 10-of-15 shooting for Boise State.

Santa Barbara scored six consecutive points to open the game and was in front the rest of the way. The Gauchos increased their lead to 34-14 on a jumper by Clinesmith with 6:03 to play in the half.

The Gauchos dominated the second half, helped by the shooting of freshman Jess Hansen, who made four three-point shots and scored all of her 14 points in the second half.

No. 22 Old Dominion 108, Richmond 67--Hamchetou Maiga scored 25 points and Lucienne Berthieu added 22 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Lady Monarchs (10-3, 3-0) to a Colonial Athletic Assn. victory over the Spiders (6-8, 1-2) at Norfolk, Va.

Old Dominion won its 86th consecutive conference game.