CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) -- Mississippi State's best season ever got even better Friday night.

Cynthia Hall scored 17 points, including five 3-pointers, as the Lady Bulldogs (No. 19 ESPN/USA Today, No. 17 AP) came away with a 66-56 upset of Auburn (No. 15 ESPN/USA Today, No. 12 AP) to reach the SEC tournament semifinals for the first time in school history. They will play No. 2 Georgia (29-2) on Saturday.

	Mississippi State's Cynthia Hall works her way around Auburn's Tiffany Krantz. Hall scored 17 points for the Bulldogs.

Coach Sharon Fanning said she hopes her Lady Bulldogs can stay focused.

"That's the biggest challenge for this team right now -- to not be satisfied," Fanning said.

"We've set some high goals and have had expectations and try to stay focused on that. Everyone believes and are encouraged to believe they can do the job."

Mississippi State (22-6) scored the first nine points off 3s and never trailed in beating Auburn (21-7) for the second time this season. The Lady Bulldogs wound up hitting 8-of-14 in the first half and finished with 10 3s, just two short of the tournament record.

"We ran into a 3-point machine early," Auburn coach Joe Ciampi said. "With the quick 3-pointers that they fired against us, we lost our defensive composure, and offensively, we couldn't find the floor early. We played catchup from there on in."

LaToya Thomas added 16 points, and Angela Harris had 14 points for Mississippi State, which had never won 20 games in a season before now.

Hall, who was 5-of-8 from 3-point range, was surprised Auburn left her open.

"When I was open, I just shot it. I was really just feeling it tonight," she said.

Auburn, 0-7 against ranked teams, struggled without leading scorer and rebounder LeCoe Willingham. The freshman had surgery Monday to repair torn cartilage in her knee.

Lori Nero, starting for the first time in her two seasons, tried to carry the Lady Tigers. She scored Auburn's first seven points and had a career-high 23. Conswella Sparrow added 11.

"LeCoe is not at fault here," Ciampi said. "It's our effort, our ability in terms of defending and making good decisions with the ball."

The Lady Tigers put together an 11-2 spurt capped by Nero's layup with 9:16 to go to get within 19-18. That would be it as Mississippi State countered with its own 17-4 run keyed by two 3s by Hall and led 41-32 at halftime.

The best Auburn could manage in the second half was to get within six a couple times, the last at 60-54 on a bucket by Nero with 3:01 remaining.