PALO ALTO, Calif. — After building an early lead, the top-seeded LSU women’s basketball fell behind a stampeding Texas team with 12:45 to play in the first half and never recovered. The Lady Tigers season Final Four dreams came to an end in the NCAA West Regional Final, 78-60, in Stanford’s Roscoe Maples Pavilion on Tuesday night.
The Lady Tigers’ remarkable season came to a close just short of the ultimate goal, but will be long remembered for its accomplishments rather than its shortcoming.
The 2002-03 team — anchored by its senior class of Patty Hanten, Kisha James, Aiysha Smith, Ke-Ke Tardy and DeTrina White — earned a No. 2 national ranking and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, while winning 30 games for the second time in school history.
LSU (30-4), the 2003 SEC Tournament Champions, beat every team it faced this season, avenging all three regular-season loses on its way to the school’s second tournament title and first since 1991. LSU beat Texas by 18 on Dec. 28, 2002.
Despite the loss to the Longhorns, LSU advanced to the Regional Final for the third time in school history and truly “Packed the PMAC” with a record 15,217 in attendance for a matchup against Tennessee on Feb. 23. LSU averaged a school-record 4,457 fans per home game this season.
Back to the game, the largest Lady Tigers loss since a 86-65 defeat at the hands of Colorado in Boulder on Dec. 29, 2001.
Texas (29-5), the Big XII regular season and tournament champions, extended its nation-high 17-game winning streak and advanced to face Connecticut on Sunday, April 6, in Atlanta’s Women’s Final Four. The Longhorns also avenged a 18-point loss to LSU on Dec. 28.
West Regional Most Outstanding Player Heather Schreiber led the Longhorns with 32 points on 13-of-21 shooting and added eight rebounds in 37 minutes of play. Forward Stacy Stephens, also on the All-Tournament team, had a double double with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Tai Dillard scored 10 of her 12 points in the first half, however, a 41-22 halftime lead was more than enough for Texas.
The Longhorns shot 47.1 percent from the field (33 of 70) and committed only five turnovers.
DeTrina White led LSU with 14 points, while Smith added 12 and both Temeka Johnson and Doneeka Hodges scored nine. National Freshman of the Year Seimone Augustus was held to eight points on 4-of-11 shooting. Johnson added a team-high seven assists and seven rebounds.
The Lady Tigers shot 39.3 percent from the field (22 of 56) and were outrebounded 42-33. LSU had only 11 turnovers including nine in the first half.
LSU built an 11-4 lead in the first five minutes of the game, as DeTrina White scored five straight, Smith hit a running one-hander off the glass as the shot clock expired and Augustus pulled up from 18 feet.
Texas responded with an 18-0 run over the next 5:54 of the game to come from seven points down and lead, 22-11.
A second-change layup by Ke-Ke Tardy, who came off the bench for the first time in 18 games, and a layup by Smith cut the Texas advantage to seven, 22-15, with 8:51 to play in the half.
However, Texas again answered what LSU had to offer with an 11-2 run of their own to grab a 33-17 lead with 3:48 left in the half.
The Longhorns continued to get easy looks under their basket, as the lead grew to 41-22 at the half on five straight layups in the last 3:48 of the half.
Attempting to come from 19 points down, LSU’s first run at Texas cut the lead to 16, 49-33, on a 15-foot jumper by Johnson at the 15:54 mark of the second half.
Texas went back to its inside game to go on a 13-2 run over the next 4:03 and lead 62-35, sealing the victory with 11:23 to play on a three by Schreiber.
In spite of a 30-point deficit midway through the half, LSU was able to get within 18, 74-56, at the 3:38 mark using the defensive pressure that had earned the Lady Tigers their vaunted ranking throughout the season. But, it was too little, too late.
2003 NCAA West Region All-Tournament Team
Most Outstanding Player: Heather Schreiber, Texas
Cheryl Ford, Louisiana Tech
Aiysha Smith, LSU
Stacy Stephens, Texas
Jamie Carey, Texas
NCAA Women’s Basketball West Regional
Tuesday, April 1, 2003 – Maples Pavilion, Stanford, CA
Texas Longhorns vs Louisiana State Lady Tigers
Final Score: Texas 78, LSU 60
LSU Quotes
Head Coach Sue Gunter
OPENING STATEMENT:
“First off I would like to congratulate a very fine Texas team. They were certainly equal to the task and we did not seem to have an answer for anything they wanted to do for after the first three or four minutes of the game. I thought they seemed to want the game a little better, and they worked harder. I do not know any area that they did not work us. That is unlike out team, but I do want to say that I am very, very proud of the LSU Lady Tigers. This has been a banner year in LSU women’s basketball, and these young ladies distinguished themselves and I could not be prouder of them. I thought they were good enough, and still do, to go all the way but tonight Texas was better. I am just very, very proud of this basketball team and to my seniors they have had as good of a career as anyone has going through our program. Again, congratulations to Texas and I wish them the best in Atlanta.”
ON THE GAME AND GETTING THIS CLOSE:
“It is really gut-wrenching. This is a very good basketball team and I think we had such high aspirations throughout the year. For whatever the reason, I never would have thought they we would have competed like this. It is tough to get this close, but that is part of what we do. You can never be sure of anything, you have got to go out and beat people. There are no teams left that are weak teams, we did not play well tonight and go out the way we would have liked to. It is tough and you want those seniors to have the opportunity to get there. They didn’t, but give credit to Texas, we did not have an answer for Schreiber tonight. They just out-worked us.”
ON STARTING DETRINA WHITE:
“I thought we would do a better job on the inside, but we just did not fight as hard and didn’t war down in the trenches like we usually do. There is not an excuse for that, they did a nice job. Give them credit for taking advantages of the situations.”
ON THE ENERGY AFTER THE LOUISIANA TECH GAME:
“No way, they were ready to play. You wonder, but you can’t fall back on that. It had nothing to do with it. We were rested and ready to go, it may have been a fault sense of security if anything.”
Junior Guard, Temeka Johnson
ON MAKING A COMEBACK LIKE AGAINST LOUISIANA TECH:
“Yes we thought we could do it. We are not going to lie down for anyone. Texas was a good team and you can’t get yourself in a whole every game and expect to come back every time. We represent LSU and we are never going to lie down to anyone.”
ON TEXAS NOW VERSUS THE GAME IN DECEMBER WITHOUT JAMIE CAREY:
“I don’t know if things would have been that different. I’m sure they are a much better team with her in the lineup, but that does not take anything away from us. We did not play LSU basketball, not to take anything away from Texas, but we were not doing the things that got us here.”
Senior Forward, DeTrina White
ON SETTING A FOUNDATION FOR THE UNDERCLASSMEN:
“When we came in we just wanted to help the program get better, and over the years more players came in and we just wanted to be leaders to help the younger players.”
Freshman Guard, Seimone Agustus
ON THE INTENSITY AFTER THE LOUISIANA TECH GAME:
“We just started slow and really did not have anything to do with the Louisiana Tech game. We just were not ready to play at the start and Texas took advantage of that and it was hard to come back. They had an answer for every shot and turnover we made, they came back and capitalized.”
University of Texas Quotes
Head Coach Jody Conradt
OPENING STATEMENT:
“I thought the team really played about as well as a team could possibly play. There were contributions from everyone on our squad. They were very focused, and it seemed as if we took advantage of every opportunity to distance ourselves from LSU.”
ADVANCING TO THE FINAL FOUR FOR THE FIRST SINCE 1987:
“I think when we won that first championship (1986), I assume that everyone just had the same feeling that ‘We did that and we’re going to do it again.’ But things never happen the same way. There’s always something different about each season. There were times I thought we would make it, and I tried to think as this game was winding down, if I thought that there was any point in this season that this team would make the Final Four. And I have to be honest and say that I never thought that far ahead. Not until we got deep into the tournament, and then I started to think that. My focus was so much on helping this team improve every day because we had a huge amount of improving to do in every aspect of the game. It wasn’t something that the coaching staff ever talked about, and I said yesterday that the team really didn’t talk about that early on either. It was sort of ironic that I’d gone into a lot of seasons thinking this team is talented enough and they could make it to the Final Four. This time that wasn’t in my mind and sometimes the best things are the things that surprise you.”
ON PLAYING SO WELL IN A CRUCIAL GAME:
“My biggest concern was that we would be tight. That we would play not to lose. The focus with this team was we’ve already exceeded everybody’s expectations except our own so let’s go out and play for each other and try to be as relaxed as we could be. This is a strange team in terms of their ability to focus and not look ahead and take care of business as it happens. I wish I could bottle it, but some teams just have that ability and when you’re experiencing it, it’s really, really fun.”
ON HER 700TH WIN AT TEXAS:
“No, I didn’t (realize it). I guess I lost count with it. It was really a special one. I just feel so fortunate to have worked at a wonderful university that early on saw the benefit and the opportunity that they could provide for young women and to put the same kind of emphasis on their women’s sports programs that they did on their men’s. I can’t tell you how excited I am that both of our teams are going to the Final Four. That has to be something that rarely happens and I can hardly wait to make contact with Rick (Barnes) and the men’s team and I know that that’s going to be one of the things that our team is going to want to do as well.”
Sophomore forward Heather Schrieber
ON HER CAREER-HIGH 32-POINT PERFORMANCE:
“I haven’t really been shooting very well in the tournament. We just worked a lot yesterday on trying to shoot the same way every time. We knew their posts were going to play high side, and we talked about that at practice. We talked about how the guards had to give us the ball and they did that at the beginning of the game so I was able to get easy shots. (The guards) gave me more confidence to be able to step outside and take jump shots and 3-pointers. The more shots I made the more confidence I got. Then I just wanted to take the ball to the basket. I wanted the ball in my hands.”
Junior guard Jamie Carey
ON CUTTING DOWN THE NETS AT MAPLES PAVILION:
“I don’t even know how to attempt to put this into the words. Since I was in seventh grade I dreamed of cutting down the nets here at Stanford to go to the Final Four. This is storybook. I’ve never been on such a wonderful team. My teammates are great and we get along so well. The chemistry we have is very special. The coaching staff is very special as well. It was just amazing to be on the floor with our team working so well together and win it all to go (to the Final Four).”
ON COMMITTING JUST ONE TURNOVER IN THE TWO WEST REGIONAL GAMES:
“We looked at our tape for the LSU game the first time we played them and one thing that we struggled with a lot was turning the ball over and not being ready for traps. When you get this deep into the tournament you have to take care of the ball from the point guard to the five player. That’s been a team focus of ours. We’ve worked on sweeping the ball and just being really strong with it and coming towards passes. I think that helped a lot.”
Junior forward/center Stacy Stephens
ON THE POSSIBILITY OF LSU COMING BACK:
“I think we were very focused. We knew they had come back on us before and that they had come back on Louisiana Tech the last time they played. We knew they had the capabilities, and that if they stepped it up we had to step it up and match whatever they did.”