La'Keisha Sutton scored 15 points, and No. 25 South Carolina beat Alabama 57-38 Thursday night in the opening round of the Southeastern Conference.
The Gamecocks (22-8) play 16th-ranked Georgia in the quarterfinals Friday night.
Markeshia Grant also scored 10 points for South Carolina.
Jasmine Robinson led Alabama (12-19) with 11 points, and Kyra Crosby 10. The Tide scored a season-low 14 in the first half and led only once on Robinson's tip-in for the first bucket.
South Carolina scored the next nine points.
The Gamecocks then went cold except at the free throw line between Sancheon White's layup with 16:40 to go before Grant's layup with 6:47 left, missing 10 straight shots. Alabama tied it up at 10 on a layup by Jessica Merritt with 10:38 remaining. But Sutton hit two free throws with 7:30 left to put South Carolina head to stay, and the Gamecocks led 32-14 at halftime.
