BATON ROUGE, La. — Sophomore Taylor Turnbow had 17 points and 12 rebounds to lead No. 7 LSU to a 61-40 victory over No. 24 Middle Tennessee last night.

LaSondra Barrett added 10 points for LSU (2-0), which led 35-15 at halftime.

"This was a coming out party for Taylor," Tigers coach Van Chancellor said. "She was truly, truly outstanding for us."

All-America forward Alysha Clark had 16 points and a game-high 20 rebounds for Middle Tennessee (1-1).

The Blue Raiders beat the Lady Tigers each of the last two seasons, including last year's game in which Clark scored 37. However, Middle Tennessee's hopes of a third straight win over LSU evaporated quickly.

After an early exchange of leads, LSU took its first double-digit lead at the 9:12 mark of the first half on a putback by Turnbow.

NO. 4 NORTH CAROLINA 88, COASTAL CAROLINA 49: Cetera DeGraffenreid scored 20 points and tied a career high with eight steals, and the host Tar Heels (2-0) opened the second half with a 24-4 run to surge past the Chanticleers (2-1).

SMALL COLLEGE

HAWAI'I-HILO 70, ALASKA-Fairbanks 66: Kirsty Imai scored 24 points, Hina Kimitete added 20, and the Vulcans (1-3) made their 37-31 halftime lead stand up in beating the Nanooks (1-1) at Fairbanks, Alaska. UHH made 22 of 28 free throws, while Fairbanks made just 5 of 8.

RANKED MEN

No. 3 Texas 73, Western Carolina 41: Damion James scored 18 points and Gary Johnson added 10 points and seven rebounds to power the host Longhorns (2-0), who raced to a 43-24 halftime lead, to an easy victory over the Catamounts (1-1).

No. 11 Butler 67, Northwestern 54: Shelvin Mack had 15 points and eight assists, Gordon Hayward added 14 points and 10 rebounds, and the visiting Bulldogs (2-0) never trailed in beating the Wildcats (1-1) for a second straight year.

WAC MEN

Utah 68, Utah State 67: Carlon Brown scored 22 points and Kim Tillie made one of two free throws with eight seconds left for 68-64 lead, helping the host Utes (1-1) beat the Aggies (1-1), who got a 3-pointer at the buzzer from Jaxon Myaer.

UNLV 88, Nevada 75: Oscar Bellfield scored a game-high 22 points and the host Rebels (2-0) rallied from a 54-42 deficit with 14 minutes to play, using a 23-4 outburst to take a 65-58 lead with 8:12 left to turn back the Wolf Pack (1-1).