PALO ALTO, Calif. — Seeking the school’s first NCAA Women’s Final Four berth, the top-seeded and third-ranked LSU women’s basketball team takes on No. 2 seed Texas in the West Region Final on Tuesday at 8 p.m. CST at Stanford’s Roscoe Maples Pavilion.
The Lady Tigers (30-3) earned the right to face the Longhorns (28-5) by virtue of a 17-point comeback in Sunday’s 69-63 win over No. 5 seed Louisiana Tech. Texas outlasted No. 6 seed Minnesota, 73-60, later Sunday to set up the tournament’s fourth No. 1 versus No. 2 matchup in regional finals.
The winner of Tuesday’s contest will face the champion of the Midwest Region — either Connecticut or Purdue — in Atlanta on Sunday, April 6.
LSU, making its third appearance in the Elite 8 in its second 30-win season, defeated Texas, 76-58, on Dec. 28 in Baton Rouge when the Lady Tigers came from nine-points down with 18 minutes to play for the big victory. Prior to Sunday’s drama, it was LSU’s largest comeback of the season.
However, the Longhorns played that pre-conference game without starting point guard and former Stanford player Jamie Carey who had mononucleosis.
Two nights after breaking Louisiana Tech’s 29-game winning streak, LSU will face the heir apparent to the nation’s longest streak. Texas took over this honor with its 16th-straight victory, and hasn’t lost since suffering its only Big 12 Conference defeat on Jan. 25 at Kansas State, 71-69.
The Lady Tigers, who have won 3-of-6 all-time meetings with Texas, have won five-straight games since a regular season-ending loss at Vanderbilt (72-60 on March 2) after wrapping up the No. 2 seed in the Southeastern Conference Tournament.
In their two previous Elite 8 appearances, LSU fell to Tennessee in 1986 (67-65 in Iowa City, Iowa) and Connecticut in 2000 (86-71 in Richmond, Va.). The Lady Tigers seek to become the 31st women’s team to earn a trip to the Women’s Final Four since the NCAA began to sponsor the tournament in 1982. LSU has a 16-12 overall tournament record in 13 appearances.
Texas, on the other hand, as been to two Final Fours (1986 and 1987), winning the 1986 national championship at 34-0. The Longhorns are in their first Regional Final since 1990, having lost in the first or second round in nine of their past 10 tournament appearances.
LSU has been led all season by National Freshman of the Year Seimone Augustus. Augustus, who averages 15 points and 5.5 rebounds per game, shoots 55.5 percent from the field and 88.9 percent from the free throw line to lead the offensive effort.
However, she has been supported by fellow All-SEC members Aiysha Smith (13.2 ppg., 5.6 rpg.) and Temeka Johnson (10.0 ppg., 3.5 rpg., 5.8 apg.). Doneeka Hodges (9.5 ppg.), DeTrina White (7.8 ppg.) and Ke-Ke Tardy (7.8 ppg.) provide the bulk of LSU’s additional offensive output.
Big 12 regular-season and tournament champions Texas, led by 27th-year head coach Jody Conradt (699-201), has relied on 6-1 junior forward Stacy Stephens (14.4 ppg., 9.0 rpg.) and 6-2 sophomore guard/forward Heather Schreiber (13.8 ppg., 8.3 rpg.), while Carey (10.8 ppg, 3.6 apg.) is the third Longhorn to average in double figures scoring.
Guards Kala Bowers (9.0 ppg., 5.1 rpg.) and Tai Dillard (7.6 ppg., 4.7 rpg.) also start for Texas, which has six reserves who average at least 8.3 minutes per game. Of those, freshman guard Nina Norman (6.5 ppg., 2.4 rpg.) leads the way at 24.1 minutes per game. She scored 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting against Minnesota in the Sweet 16.
Quotes from Monday’s Press Conference
(courtesy of Stanford Univ. media relations)
LSU Head Coach Sue Gunter
OPENING STATEMENTS:
“First of all, naturally we are delighted that we are here. In a lot of ways we are fortunate to be here. We look forward to the match-up with a very fine Texas team. They’ve had an outstanding year. My compliments to and her staff and team. I think the game will be extremely competitive and very good.”
ON KEEPING THE TEAM FOCUSED ON THE EVE OF A BIG GAME:
“I think with this particular team, with my team, they are very mature. They are an experienced team. Some of the other kids, not the freshmen, have been to the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight so I think they know what’s at stake. I’m not real concerned about that. I think there will be some cases of nerves. The whole point is that it’s that time of the year. I think that the kids will handle it well. I think both teams will be a little nervous in the beginning because of what’s at stake, but once both teams settle in, it should be an excellent contest.”
ON TEXAS HEAD COACH JODY CONRADT:
“Jody and I have been contemporaries and peers since we were very young. We’ve just been very good friends for a lot of years. We go back to the good old days. What a quality person and a great friend.”
LSU Junior Guard Temeka Johnson
ON LOOKING TO GET OFF TO A GOOD START:
“I think we are going to come out and play a lot harder and see what happens. I don’t think that any of us like being down. If it comes to that point, then we are going to do whatever we have to do to get back up. We are going to try and do whatever we have to do from the beginning instead of playing catch up.”
ON IF THE TEAM IS FOCUSED AFTER SUNDAY NIGHT’S WIN:
“I think we’ll be ready for Texas, and we’re pretty sure that Texas will be ready for us. We’re just waiting for tomorrow to get here.”
LSU Freshman Guard Seimone Augustus
ON FACING TEXAS AFTER BEATING THEM PREVIOUSLY THIS SEASON:
“We know for sure that they are going to try and get a win back. We just have to come out and play hard tomorrow. Since we beat them earlier in the year, they’ve gotten better since that time so we know that they are going to come out and play hard.”
LSU Senior Center Aiysha Smith
ON HOW THE TEAM HAS MATURED SINCE THEIR FIRST MEETING WITH TEXAS:
“We’ve played tough competition, a tough schedule. Last night’s game is a big example. We overcame a 17-point deficit. We pulled together and came out with a win. If we play as a team, anything is possible.”
University of Texas
Head Coach Jody Conradt
OPENING STATEMENT:
“I was happy to wake up this morning, and know that we’re still alive and still playing and that the numbers had dwindled in terms of teams and the number of games for us to move to Atlanta. That was the good news. As I thought about our next challenge, it’s a formidable one. LSU, is in my opinion, the best team in the country. I thought that in December when we played them (LSU 76, Texas 58; December 28 at LSU), and I still feel that way. They have depth, they have talent, and they have two post players that are ready for the WNBA. They will be a real challenge for us. I’m most impressed with how they have that reserve that they can find ways to win even when they have a big deficit in the second half of games. They weren’t that far behind us when we played them at LSU, but we did compete with them going into the second half and then they just put it into overdrive and distanced themselves from us at that point. I think we’re probably both better teams since then. It’s going to be a very hard, competitive match-up for us, but I think my team, has proven that they are going to play hard and they have certainly proven to me that they are not going to give up. I look forward to an opportunity to extend the season.”
ON THE PATH TO THE REGIONAL FINAL:
“As I look back to what our team had to accomplish to get here, it was a daunting task and I’m very proud of the fact that we were able to survive and reach this point. I know that Coach (Sue) Gunter probably feels the same way. I know she probably said the same thing that I would have said: ‘Let’s hope we both play well enough to get to play each other.’ “
Sophomore forward Heather Schreiber
ON THE FIRST MEETING WITH LSU:
“The first time we played them we were ahead of them, and then we had a long spell where we didn’t score and took a lot of bad shots. We started out really hot, and then we thought we could take the same type of shots the whole game. Then they started getting transition baskets and got a lot of momentum. We didn’t play very good interior defense on them and I think for us to be able to win the game, we have to control the paint and not let their post players go off for a lot of points. We have to keep them from penetrating, and control their transition game since that’s one of their strengths.”
Junior guard Jamie Carey
ON THE TEAM’S GOALS THIS SEASON:
“Our goal was to concentrate on winning the Big XII and then the Big XII (Tournament) Championship in the beginning, and doing better than they did in the Tournament last year. Our goal is definitely to get to the Final Four. We just need one more win to do that.”
Senior guard Tai Dillard
ON LSU:
“There’s definitely a great deal of respect (for LSU), but this game is just going to be about who wants to make it to Atlanta more. It’s going to be a battle. Each player on both teams is just going to have to play hard and just gut it out for 40 minutes since both teams want to go to the Final Four.”