RICHMOND, Va. — Despite a valiant effort by the LSU women’s basketball team, the Lady Tigers fell to the top-ranked UConn Huskies, 86-71, in the Elite 8 of the NCAA Tournament, ending their season with a 25-7 record Monday evening in Richmond, Va.
Given almost no change by the national media, LSU fought through an early run by the Huskies and went from 19-8 down after five minutes of play to two down, 48-46, with 17:58 left in the second half.
With 74 percent shooting in the first half and 18 points from April Brown, the Lady Tigers gave the favorite for the national championship everything it could handle but ran out of gas after UConn went on a 17-6 over a 10-minute span in the middle of the second half.
LSU would cut a 17-point Husky lead to 11, 75-64, on a free throw by DeTrina White at the 4:30 mark, however, they would get no closer.
UConn will face second-seeded Penn State in its first Final Four since winning the NCAA title in 1995.
The trip to the Elite Eight was only the second for Sue Gunter in 36 years of coaching including 18 at LSU. LSU came back to win its first three games in the NCAA Tournament against 14th-seeded Liberty, 11th-seeded Stephen F. Austin and 2nd-seeded Duke.
UConn, which had won its first three tournament games by an average of 43 points, needed a 25-point performance by Svetlana Abrosimova on 9-of-13 shooting to advance.
April Brown scored 23 points to lead LSU, while Marie Ferdinand scored 17, DeTrina White had 13 and Katrina Hibbert also scored 13 in her final game as a Lady Tiger.
LSU would shoot 29-of-57 from the field (50.9 percent) while Uconn hit 29-of-51 for 56.9 percent. The difference came from three-point range — the Huskies hit 9-of-16 — and from the foul line where Connecticut would outscore the Lady Tigers 19-7.