March 2, 2003
OXFORD, Miss. (AP) – Cristina Ciocan had 23 points, nine rebounds and six assists as No. 16 South Carolina beat Mississippi 91-68 Sunday.
The Gamecocks (21-6, 9-5 Southeastern Conference) ended the regular season by winning four straight. They finished tied for fifth in the SEC with Vanderbilt.
Kelly Morrone scored 19 points, Petra Ujhelyi had 16, Sarah Burgess 13 and Olga Gritsaeva 10 for South Carolina.
Amber Watts had 18 points and eight rebounds to lead Ole Miss (12-15, 1-13), which lost its final 13 SEC games to match its worst conference record ever.
Tia Watson had 15 points and nine rebounds for the Lady Rebels.
South Carolina outscored Ole Miss 21-9 in the final seven minutes of the first half to take control of the game. Morrone hit two 3-pointers during the run, the second with 1:10 left to make it 40-26.
South Carolina led 42-26 at halftime.
Ole Miss cut the lead to 13 early in the second half on a free throw by Watts, but it never got any closer.
Burgess scored six straight points for South Carolina to extend the lead to 49-32 with 17 minutes left.
Back-to-back 3-pointers by Ciocan and Koretha Johnson increased the lead to 63-41 with 10:41 left.
