Vanderbilt coach Melanie Balcomb sensed she'd get the hustle plays she talks about when her players ran onto the court rather than let her finish her final pep talk before facing Georgia.

The No. 22 Commodores committed only three turnovers as Christina Wirth scored 23 points in a 69-61 victory Friday in the Southeastern Conference tournament quarterfinals.

"It was a good sign," Balcomb said.

LSU awaits Vanderbilt in the semifinals; the Tigers defeated Mississippi State 63-58 later Friday night. The Commodores defeated LSU 75-67 in their only meeting this season back on Jan. 18. The game begins at 8 p.m. CT and will be televised on FSN.

Playing without leading rebounder Hannah Tuomi, who has a stress fracture in her left ankle, Balcomb said her team would have to go underneath for rebounds against a taller team in Georgia.

"We wanted hustle plays," she said, adding that a loss would follow "if you want to be the victim and say they're going to go over us."

Tia Gibbs finished with 13 points, Merideth Marsh scored 12 and Jennifer Risper had 11 for Vanderbilt. The three turnovers was an SEC women's tournament record low. Vanderbilt never trailed in the game.

Georgia (18-13) trailed 62-56 when Ashley Houts, the Lady Bulldogs' leading scorer this season, scored her only points of the game on a 3-pointer with 2:06 to play. Houts then fed Angel Robinson underneath to cut it to 62-61 with 1:22 left.

But Vanderbilt (22-8) answered with a 3 by Marsh and two foul shots by Wirth to make it 67-61 with 31.3 seconds to play.

Houts remained in the thick of many plays; she was usually in the middle if bodies were hitting the floor. But Vandebilt's game plan was to render Houts a nonfactor. She finished 1 of 4, hitting only the 3-pointer, with three assists in 40 minutes on the court.

"If you disrupt Ashley Houts, you disrupt Georgia, and that was really what the plan was," Balcomb said.

Georgia coach Andy Landers said he expected as much and was prepared to have Angela Puleo step into Houts' role. Puleo scored nine points and had five assists, but she also had three of Georgia's 12 turnovers.

"We didn't defend the dribble, we didn't defend the 3," Landers said. "No sense of urgency about defending those things."

Wirth said the game came down to hustle.

"We outworked them, that's always a key for us," she said.

Risper, the SEC defensive player of the year, agreed.

"We stuck together and played hard," Risper said.

Vanderbilt made 9 of 26 from 3-point range and hit 10 of 11 free throws but shot 37 percent for the game (25-67).

"The number that counts for them is 16, the 16 offensive boards," Landers said, even though Georgia had 39 rebounds to Vanderbilt's 34.

"We didn't box out at all, nor did we pursue the ball," Landers said. "We got outhustled."

by: Chuck Lartels, Associated Press