DULUTH, Ga. (AP) — Georgia coach Andy Landers challenged his team after a sloppy start and the Lady Bulldogs responded in a big way.
Porsha Phillips led a balanced offense with 15 points and Georgia dominated the second half for a 67-50 victory over Clemson on Monday night.
Christy Marshall added 13, Angela Puleo scored 12 and Ashley Houts had 11 points for the Bulldogs (9-2).
Clemson (8-3), which had a six-game winning streak snapped, was led by Lele Hardy with 20 points.
"We got a little lazy with the lead and they definitely picked the intensity way up," Clemson coach Cristy McKinney said. "We didn't respond."
The Tigers led by 12 points twice in the first half, holding Georgia without a field goal for nearly six minutes in one stretch. But the Bulldogs went on an 8-0 run to cut the Clemson lead to 32-28 at halftime and then took charge in the second half.
"Coach told us to get back focused and do the things we were supposed to do," said Phillips, who had nine rebounds and four steals. "Once we did that, we were OK."
Down 32-20 late in the first half, Georgia outscored Clemson 47-18 the rest of the game.
"Coach challenged us," Poleo said. "We made up our minds to turn it around and we did."
Georgia made just four of its first 17 shots from the floor, before finishing at 40.7 percent shooting (24-for-59). The Tigers shot 32.2 percent from the field (16 of 59).
Puleo was 3-for-8 from behind the 3-point arc.
"We've got to get our respect back," Landers said. "This was a good win for us. We started off with way too many turnovers. Once we got that under control and picked things up, we starting playing like we can."
Georgia won the rebounding battle 43-37, including 12 by Angel Robinson. Hardy led Clemson with eight rebounds and April Parker had seven.
A crowd of 3,361 attended at the game at the Arena at the Gwinnett Center, located about 25 miles northeast of Atlanta. It will be the site of first-round games in the NCAA Tournament for the first time on March 21 and 23, 2009.
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