PALO ALTO, Calif. — The third-ranked LSU women’s basketball team was dead in the water — or so just about everyone in Maples Pavilion thought — when the top-seeded Lady Tigers came back from 17 points down in the final 14:27 to “survive and advance” to the Elite 8, 69-63, over No. 5-seeded Louisiana Tech on Sunday evening in the NCAA Sweet 16.
The Lady Tigers (30-3) advanced to the Regional Final for the third time in school history (1986 and 2000) and won 30 games for the second time in school history (37-3 in 1977-78).
LSU, which defeated Louisiana Tech (31-3) for the first time in three NCAA meetings, will face No. 2 seed Texas on Tuesday at 8 p.m. CST for a chance to advance to its first Final Four. Texas defeated No. 6 seed Minnesota, 73-60, on Sunday evening.
Louisiana Tech’s nation’s best 29-game winning streak came to an end, as well as the Lady Techsters’ four-game Sweet 16 winning streak.
Trailing 50-33 with 14:27 to play, LSU scored 16 straight points over a 10-minute stretch to get the lead down to one. After taking the lead, 57-56, on a Doneeka Hodges jumper on the left side the lane with 5:22 to play, LSU would never trail again.
The 17-point comeback was the largest of the season, surpassing a nine-point deficit with 14:11 left in a 76-58 win over Texas on Dec. 28 in Baton Rouge. The 17-point deficit tied the largest of the season, as LSU trailed Arkansas, 51-34, with 14:01 remaining in a 82-72 loss.
“I don’t like to be down, honestly, especially by as much as we were down,” freshman guard Seimone Augustus said. “I felt that we came out sluggish and somebody had to do something to pick this team up, so I came out and I fired the team up. DeTrina White, Aiysha Smith, everybody got on a roll, and the couple of buckets I hit it got us started to play LSU basketball.”
The Lady Tigers, who were held to only 37 percent shooting in the first half, finished 28 of 59 for 47.5 percent including 56.3 percent in the second half (18 of 32). LSU added 3-of-6 from three-point range and 10 of 11 from the free throw line.
Conversely, Louisiana Tech relaxed its pressure defense in the second half and allowed LSU to run its offense much more effectively down the stretch.
Aiysha Smith led LSU with 19 points on 7-of-14 shooting, while Freshman of the Year Augustus added 14 and Doneeka Hodges had 11.
Senior reserve forward DeTrina White gave LSU the shot in the arm it needed off the bench, scoring 10 points and grabbing six critical rebounds in 28 minutes of action.
LSU’s 6-5 sophomore center Crystal White also came off the bench to stop the Brobdingnagian inside game of Louisiana Tech. Crystal played only three minutes in relief of Smith after the starter picked up her fourth foul late in the game, but blocked a shot and redirected a few more.
Johnson, who abandoned her pair of protective Oakley glasses after missing her first five shots, sparked the Lady Tigers in the second half after making only 1-of-8 shots in the first 20 minutes. Only six days after fracturing two bones in her face, Johnson nearly notched a triple double with eight points, eight rebounds and nine assists.
The Lady Techsters were led by Trina Frierson with 18 points, while two-time Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year Cheryl Ford had a double double with 16 points and 15 rebounds.
Erica Smith (11) and Tasha Crain (10) were also in double figures scoring for Louisiana Tech.
Louisiana Tech took the ball right at the Lady Tigers in the first six minutes of the game, taking a 12-6 lead without much effort on the offensive end. The Lady Techsters dominated the paint early on behind the play of Ford and Frierson.
LSU’s Johnson, playing for the first time since suffering a pair of fractured bones in her face, missed her first five shots from the field, as the Lady Tigers had a tough time getting into offensive rhythm. Smith scored LSU’s first six points.
Senior Kisha James came off the bench with 14:11 to play and immediately hit a three-pointer from the top of the key to cut the lead to 12-9.
As LSU continued to struggle from the field, Tech built the lead to seven, 20-13, on consecutive baskets by Frierson with 7:48 to play in the half. The 6-2 junior forward had 10 of the Lady Techsters’ first 20 points on 5-of-10 shooting.
The Lady Tigers again cut the lead to three, 20-17, on a layup by Johnson and a pair of free throws by Doneeka Hodges.
Louisiana Tech responded with a 8-2 run over the next 3:40 to earn a 28-19 lead with 3:09 to play in the half.
LSU fell behind by as many as 12, 33-21, with less than a minute to play in the half but cut it to 10 with a layup by Smith at the 18-second mark.
The Lady Techsters wasted no time pushing the lead to 15, 38-23, in the first 68 seconds of the second half, as Smith hit a three-pointer from the key and Obaze pulled up from eight feet for a bucket.
For the first time, the Lady Tigers showed life on the offensive end, as Augustus hit back-to-back jumpers to slice the lead to nine, 42-33, at the 16:19 mark.
An 8-0 run by Tech was matched by a 17-0 run by LSU that cut the Tech led to 50-49 with 8:23 remaining.
Smith hit a three-pointer from the key and a nine-footer to start the LSU run. After two free throws by Augustus, DeTrina White scored four straight and Johnson hit a running jumper off the glass to get the Lady Tigers within one point.
LSU took the lead for the first time on a eight-foot jumper by Doneeka Hodges with 5:22 remaining in the game, and DeTrina White expanded it to four, 61-57, to extend the run to 28-7 over a span of more than 10 minutes.
After trading baskets three times, LSU finally extended the lead to six, 69-63, on a pair of free throws by Smith with only 12.8 seconds remaining.
NCAA Women’s Basketball West Regional
Sunday, March 30, 2003 – Maples Pavilion, Stanford, CA
LSU Quotes
Head Coach Sue Gunter
HER OPENING STATEMENT…
“A great effort against an excellent Louisiana Tech team; my congratulations to them, because they did have us on the ropes. We could talk about the character of this particular team, there was no genius at halftime, there was nothing more than talking about where we have been: it felt like we had been out hustled and out scrapped in the first half and I think we appealed to the competitiveness. I thought we got some absolutely great plays out of our two fifth-year seniors, Kisha James in the first half and in the second half came in and gave us a huge lift. And I cannot say enough about the play of DeTrina White. She was absolutely outstanding. Her intensity, and we’ve talked about this before, the intensity that she brings to the game and the enthusiasm of her, Kisha James, Temeka (Johnson), I think everybody else stepped up, Seimone (Augustus), Aiysha (Smith), Doneeka (Hodges) hits a big three when we have to have it. Finally we decided to do a good job on the defensive end of the floor. As a coaching staff we felt that if we could ever get the lead, and we could hang in there, just a little bit longer to get the lead, if we had a little bit more left in our tanks, then we could get Louisiana Tech. That’s a fine basketball team and those two post players are about as good as it gets.”
ON GOING INSIDE…
“We did go inside, but we wanted to do that in the first half, too. That was a part of trying to put pressure on them defensively as well, make them guard us. But we felt like if we could power the ball inside, and Seimone (Agustus) just touched on that, when we stayed with our motion offense, and played what we call the triangle, it forced them to switch and we got some mis-matches in there and we kicked it a couple of times to DeTrina (White) who was absolutely open, no one guarding her at all. We slipped some screens and that seemed to work for us; everybody seemed to stick to the play, but we wanted to pound the ball inside, we backed up the first half and didn’t do that.”
ON WAITING TO PUT CRYSTAL WHITE IN…
“I like what was going on with Aiysha, (Smith) and Ke-Ke (Tardy) and Train (DeTrina White). That just was our call. I liked what we were getting with DeTrina and Aiysha; it seemed the timing was right. I felt that at that time (Cheryl) Ford (La Tech) was a little bit tired and we felt that Crystal could be a little bit intimidating in there and I think she got us a couple of blocks right off and did a really good job. That was just my call; I liked the flow, and I liked what was going on earlier. Maybe not the first half. Maybe I should have played her some in the first half, but you really don’t look back.”
ON THE NUMBER OF FANS…
” like the fact that they are traveling with us and I think that the best is yet to come. We are going to see a lot more of that. They did make a lot of noise and we are appreciative of that.”
ON THE RUN…
“We talk all the time about when we do a good job on the defensive end of the floor. When it seems to give us momentum and it gives a good transition, then we get up tempo, we get more aggressive, and we start to believe. That’s exactly what happened.”
Freshman Guard, Seimone Agustus
ON INTENSITY WHILE BEHIND:
“Yes, I don’t like to be down, honestly, especially by as much as we were down. I felt that we came out sluggish and somebody had to do something to pick this team up, so I came out and I fired the team up. DeTrina White, Aiysha Smith, everybody got on a roll, and the couple of buckets I hit it got us started to play LSU basketball.”
ON THE 16-0 RUN:
“We started executing. We took good care of the ball, we tried our Triangle Offense, our Motion Offense and it started working. Eventually they started making screens and we started getting our guards guarding post players and it worked to our advantage.”
Junior Guard, Temeka Johnson
ON TAKING OFF HER GOGGLES:
“They were aggravating me. They were starting to fog up and I didn’t want to say anything to my teammates, I knew they’d laugh, so I just took them off. It seemed to help towards the end of the game. It didn’t effect my shots, they just weren’t falling. I had the looks, but they weren’t going in. I can’t say the glasses effected my shot.”
Senior Center, Aiysha Smith
ON THE 16-0 RUN:
“On the defensive end we were getting steals, and coming down in the transition, and converting them, and everyone got into it. That’s what we did. That’s what got us there. Starting on the defensive end and getting it to the offensive end.”
ON THE POST PLAYERS IN THE SECOND HALF…
“In the first half they were a little more fresh, running up and down the floor. As you see, Cheryl (Ford – Tech) played 40 minutes, so I think it began to wear on her a little bit at the end.”
Louisiana Tech Postgame Press Conference Quotes
Sunday, March 30, 2003
Louisiana Tech Head Coach Kurt Budke
HIS OPENING STATEMENT…
“Of course I want to congratulate LSU. They’ve got a great team. I think they’ll do well from here out. But as I say that, I’m so proud of my team and what we’ve accomplished this year. I don’t know if there’s too many people out there right now that think we’re a five seed. This team is a very good team. These two teams probably shouldn’t have met until the next round. But you can’t have 25 turnovers and expect to beat a great team like LSU. I think that’s where the difference was in the ball game. When it’s a possession ball game like it was; when every possession counts, to turnover 25 times and still have a chance to win tells you a lot about the young ladies sitting next to me. I thought the game plan was carried out. I thought we defended them as well as probably they’ve been defended all year long. We just turned the ball over a little too much tonight.”
ON LSU’S RUN….
“I thought every time we came down offensively and we didn’t turn it over I thought we had a good shot. I thought we got the ball where we wanted to get it and we talked to the girls – they’re too good a team not to make a run. They went on a 16 and 0 run and then the game was over. They’re just to good, they have too many great players. They did a heck of a job, that’s the reason they’re the number one seed right now. You have to give them credit for not quitting, but our kids never quit, either. We didn’t have quite the bench they had and that hurt us. During their runs they would maybe get a four or five point run because maybe our kids were just a little tired. But I’m very proud of what we did tonight.”
Louisiana Tech Forward Trina Frierson
ON THE TEAM’S TURNOVERS DURING THE GAME…
“I think that the turnovers are what hurt us. The turnovers is what it boils down to, really. They made runs, and we didn’t score after they made their runs, so they cut the lead and cut the lead, and then we were down. I think the turnovers and not taking care of the ball is what changed the game.”
Louisiana Tech Center Cheryl Ford
ON THE ROLE STAMINA PLAYED IN THE GAME…
“I think that we played a great game defensively, we just needed more depth off the bench. My stamina was fine. It was just the turnovers. You can’t win when you have 25 turnovers.”
NCAA West Regional
Sunday, March 30, 2003
Postgame Notes
Semifinal #1 – LSU 69, Louisiana Tech 63
LSU
— Outscored Louisiana Tech 36-13 over the final 14:19 to post the come-from-behind victory.
— Improved to 30-3 on the season, and has now won six in a row.
— This was LSU’s first win over Louisiana Tech in the NCAA Tournament in four tries … The win also broke Louisiana Tech’s 31-game winning streak against schools from the state of Louisiana.
— Now 3-4 in NCAA Regional Semifinals, and have won two in a row, including a 79-66 victory over Duke on March 25, 2000.
— Will be making its third-ever NCAA Regional Final appearance … Also reached the regional finals in 1985-86 and 1999-2000 … Will be bidding to reach its first-ever Final Four.
— The Tigers are now 13-3 against ranked teams this season, including five wins in a row.
Louisiana Tech
— Finishes the season 31-4, and was appearing in its 22nd straight NCAA Tournament (one of only two schools, along with Tennessee, to appear in all 22 NCAA Women’s Tournaments).
— The loss snapped Louisiana Tech’s 29-game winning streak, which was the longest in the nation and fourth longest in school history.
— Louisiana Tech out-rebounded LSU 40-23, marking the 29th time in 34 games this season that it had won the battle of the boards.
— Senior Cheryl Ford recorded her 36th career double-double, and 24th this season, with 16 points and 15 rebounds … She finishes seventh in Louisiana Tech history with 1,055 career rebounds … Ford’s 438 rebounds this season are the most ever by a Louisiana Tech senior.
— The Lady Techsters have reached the NCAA Regional Semifinals in 10 of the last 11 seasons.
— This is the second straight time LSU and Louisiana Tech have met in California … The teams met in an NCAA West Regional Semifinal in Los Angeles on March 20, 1999 (Louisiana Tech 73-52).