DULUTH, Ga. - In 26 years as the women's basketball coach at Georgia, Andy Landers has won 20 games 21 times.
The Lady Bulldogs helped Landers cross that threshold again Sunday as Tasha Humphrey and Cori Chambers combined to score 47 points in No. 18 Georgia's 88-60 win over Clemson.
Humphrey had 25 points and 11 rebounds for her 11th double-double, tops in the Southeastern Conference and the most at Georgia since 1987, when Katrina McClain had 22 on her way to being named national player of the year.
"She can play the perimeter," Landers said of Humphrey, his freshman sensation. "She can play inside. She's playing the five because we need her there, but she won't play the five long. She'll either be a four or a three."
In losing its 10th straight game, Clemson (7-16) used a familiar tactic to contain Humphrey. The Tigers, whose previous nine losses came against Atlantic Coast Conference opponents, pounded her repeatedly, but Humphrey responded by hitting eight of 10 free throws and pulling down five offensive rebounds.
The Lady Bulldogs (20-6) scored 32 points off 22 Clemson turnovers.
"We knew going into this game that our defense was going to be turned up more and played with more intensity because we know our offense is going to be there regardless," Humphrey said. "If you go out there and play at both ends of the floor, that makes it hard for other teams to make a run and get their momentum going."
Arkansas beat Georgia Tech 71-59 in the earlier game of the SEC-ACC doubleheader played at the Arena at Gwinnett Center.
Reggie Maddox led the Tigers with 18 points. Clemson pulled within 13 at the 5:54 mark when Maxienne White hit an eight-foot runner off the glass.
Chambers, who finished with 22 points, answered with consecutive 3-pointers from the left side before Humphrey hit a pair of free throws to make it 78-57 with 4:20 remaining.
"It makes things a lot easier," Humphrey said. "If you go out there and hit a couple of baskets and then shut them down, then a lot of times they start pressing and making mistakes. We got a lot of big 3s and offensive rebounds, too."
Sherill Baker set a season high with seven steals for Georgia. According to Landers, defensive pressure applied by Baker and the other guards gave the Lady Bulldogs a spark that they missed in recent wins over Alabama, Kentucky and South Carolina.
"I saw better defense and at times better offense," Landers said. "I saw better play overall than we've had in the last couple of games. The thing that pleases me most is I thought our core perimeter players all made a greater effort to be aggressive defensively. That's the starting point for us to get better. We're pretty good, but we can be better, and I thought we might have started in that direction today."
Five trips to the Final Four and 21 appearances in the NCAA tournament have only given Landers incentive to try harder to bring Georgia its first national championship in basketball. He is all but assured of leading the Lady Bulldogs back to the NCAA tournament next month.
Georgia last year was the No. 3 seed at the West Regional in Seattle when it lost to No. 4 seed LSU to miss a chance to play in a sixth Final Four.
"Winning 20 games has never been an objective during any single season," Landers said. "By design, I would like to think we're geared toward being ready to compete at a high level in the tournament. Winning 20 is a byproduct of that."
The Lady Bulldogs improved to 11-5 against Clemson, 3-0 at neutral sites.
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