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Graham leads No. 18 LSU past SCarolina 69-52

Jan 22, 2010 - 2:25 AM BATON ROUGE, La.(AP) -- Katherine Graham scored 22 of her career-high 24 points in the first half and No. 18 LSU snapped a two-game losing streak by beating South Carolina 69-52 on Thursday night.

Scoring inside and out, Graham hit all eight of her shots in the opening half and surpassed her previous career best of 14 points in the first 10 minutes. The Tigers (14-3, 3-2 SEC) led by as much as 18 and the Gamecocks never came closer than eight points the rest of the way.

LaSondra Barrett and Allison Hightower combined for 24 of LSU's first 26 points in the second half. Barrett finished with 18 points and eight rebounds. Hightower had 16 points.

Kelsey Bone scored 16 for South Carolina (10-8, 3-3), which lost for the first time in four games. La'Keisha Sutton added 14 points.

Valerie Nainima, who came in averaging 18.5 points, managed five.

The Gamecocks pulled within 54-46 in the second half but failed to cut any further into the margin, missing four shots that would have pulled them within six.

Barrett then scored LSU's next eight points as the Tigers took a 62-48 lead and put the game away, holding South Carolina to six points in the final 11 minutes.