Vanderbilt Vanderbilt/Georgia Georgia Women's College Basketball recap on ESPN

But the Lady Bulldogs showed Sunday they can beat a team on the inside, relying on Tawana McDonald, Christi Thomas and Tameiko Washington to wear down Vanderbilt (No. 17 ESPN/USA Today, No. 16 AP).

McDonald scored 15 points, Washington had a career-high 13 on perfect shooting and Thomas added 12 as Georgia defeated Vanderbilt 76-59.

Kelly Miller scored 15 points but also spent a good part of the game dishing the ball to the post players. Her sister had only eight points, equaling her season low.

"The Millers are usually much more involved in the offense," Vanderbilt coach Jim Foster said, adding that his Georgia counterpart, Andy Landers, "chose to attack us in a different way."

At the defensive end, Georgia shut down the nation's top-shooting team, holding the Commodores to their lowest-scoring game of the season.

The tone changed dramatically when Vandy point guard Ashley McElhiney went out for good before the game was four minutes old.

Already suffering from a slight stress fracture in her left foot, she tumbled to the court going for a rebound and hobbled off the court in obvious pain.

"That was a break, though it wasn't the break we wanted," Landers said. "It allowed us to defend them a little bit more effectively than we could have or would have."

Vanderbilt (15-5, 4-3 Southeastern Conference) was leading the nation with 57.5 percent shooting but managed only 44.4 percent (24-for-54) against Georgia.

"That was kind of the key factor, stopping them defensively," Washington said. "When we play good defense, the offense comes to us naturally."

The Lady Bulldogs (18-3, 6-1) scored the final nine points after the Commodores closed to 67-59 on Chantelle Anderson's basket with 2:51 remaining.

Georgia won its 250th game at Stegeman Coliseum and stretched its home winning streak to 21 in a row. Vandy, on the other hand, has a three-game losing streak, all in the SEC and the last two coming against Top Five opposition.

The Commodores lost to third-ranked Tennessee 70-64 on Tuesday.

Vanderbilt was averaging 83.3 points per game but has slumped dramatically during its losing streak, averaging just 62.3 in the three games.

The performance against Georgia was the worst yet and eclipsed the previous season low, a 64-60 loss to Xavier in the Nov. 19 opener.

Foster isn't sure when McElhiney will be able to return, meaning the Commodores will have to go with freshman Juli Colli at the point.

McDonald had only two points at halftime, but she bounced back strong in the second half before fouling out with 4:10 remaining. The nation's leading shot blocker swatted four more away, while Thomas grabbed 10 rebounds.

Washington hit her first five shots on drives to the basket, then added the first 3-pointer of her career at the buzzer.

Anderson played the entire game for Vanderbilt and led the team with 25 points.

The first half was tight most of the way. Georgia began to pull away in the waning minutes, scoring the final six points for a 35-22 lead at the break.

Vandy hit only 10 of 30 attempts from the field and further stifled its offense with seven turnovers.

Kelly Miller hit a 3-pointer to begin the second half and Georgia quickly pushed the margin to 18 points before Vandy got back in the game with a 10-0 run. But the Commodores never got closer than seven.

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