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College basketball
March 31, 2003
STANFORD, Calif. -- Temeka Johnson and Sue Gunter could see just fine without their glasses -- and their first trip to the Final Four is in sight.
Johnson had eight points, nine assists and eight rebounds despite two broken bones near her right eye, and Aiysha Smith scored 19 as top-seeded LSU beat Louisiana Tech 69-63 on Sunday in the West Region semifinals.
Gunter, the Tigers' Hall of Fame coach, is on the brink of her first Final Four after nearly four decades. LSU didn't get going until it trailed by 17 points early in the second half, but it was easy for Gunter to forget those struggles.
"I forgot my glasses, so I really haven't seen the stat sheet," Gunter said. "It doesn't matter. I hear we won."
The Tigers' fortunes changed in the second when Johnson, the SEC tournament MVP, sparked a 16-0 rally with her scoring, defense and playmaking. She wore goggles to protect her face in the first, but they kept fogging up and she got rid of them.
Freshman Seimone Augustus scored 14 for LSU (30-3), which took the lead for good with 41/2 minutes left, then snapped the fifth-seeded Techsters' 29-game winning streak with fearless scoring down the stretch.
"I don't like to be down, honestly -- especially by as much as we were down," Augustus said.
The Tigers also earned Bayou State superiority, even if the game was played in California.
Two-time WAC player of the year Cheryl Ford finished her career with 16 points and 15 rebounds for Louisiana Tech (31-3), which hadn't lost since Dec.4. Trina Frierson scored 18, but the Techsters faltered early in the second while LSU shot better than 56 percent after halftime.
TEXAS 73, MINNESOTA 60: Jamie Carey scored 18 on the same court where she starred as a freshman for Stanford to lead the Longhorns.
Second-seeded Texas won its 16th straight game to advance to the region final for the sixth time under coach Jody Conradt, who took the Longhorns (28-5) to Final Fours in 1986 and '87.
Texas is the only school with both its men's and women's teams still in the tournament.
The Longhorns also got 14 points and 12 rebounds from Heather Schreiber.
Kim Prince had 15 points for No.6 seed Minnesota (25-6), which reached the Sweet 16 for the first time in school history but couldn't overcome a poor performance Sunday.
The Longhorns held Minnesota's leading scorer, Lindsay Whalen, to 13, eight below her average. She also committed six of her team's 14 turnovers. Sophomore center Janel McCarville added 10 points and 12 rebounds but was not the dominant inside presence she had often been this season.
UCONN 70, BOSTON COLLEGE 49: Diana Taurasi scored 18 of her 26 in the first half and the Huskies dominated from the start in the East Region semifinal in Dayton, Ohio.
Top-seeded Connecticut (34-1) shot 59 percent en route to a 19-point halftime lead and held Boston College to 32 percent, ending the Eagles' charmed run through the NCAA Tournament.
"I think in the first half that was probably the best we've run our offense in a while," Taurasi said. "Everyone was touching the ball, a lot of screens, a lot of cuts. That was probably one of the best paces we've played at for a while."
UConn, the defending national champion, would go to the Final Four for the fourth straight season and seventh time overall with a win against Purdue in the region final.
Fifth-seeded Boston College (22-9) had advanced by beating Old Dominion and Vanderbilt on last-second shots by Amber Jacobs.
But with Taurasi scoring eight, UConn closed the first with a 14-2 run to open a 44-25 lead. Boston College never challenged the rest of the way.
"They're tough and so physical," Eagles forward Becky Gottstein said. "It made maneuvering in the post so tough. You always seemed to get a forearm in the back."
Jessica Moore and Barbara Turner gave UConn an inside presence, Moore scoring 17 and Turner 14. Moore spearheaded the defense against Gottstein, held to 10 points and five rebounds with five turnovers.
"The coaches told me to just play hard, continue to run the floor and play well," Moore said. "I just tried to do that."
PURDUE 66, NOTRE DAME 47: Erika Valek scored 19 and helped key an early second-half spurt for the Boilermakers.
"Erika Valek was an All-American today. She was the difference in the game," Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said. "I didn't think anybody else really hurt us. She really did the damage."
Valek injured her knee in the region semifinals two seasons ago and didn't get to play in the Final Four. She used that as incentive.
"It's hard to be in the Final Four and not get to play," the junior said. "So obviously that's been a motivation factor. We want to get there and we want to be able to experience that."
As for 11th-seeded Notre Dame, its upset streak came to a halt. The Fighting Irish were the lowest remaining seed left after beating No.6 Arizona in the first round and No.3 Kansas State in the second.
"We overachieved a little in the NCAA Tournament," McGraw said.
Valek, at 5 feet 6 the smallest player on the floor, closed the half by hitting a 3-pointer with two seconds left to give second-seeded Purdue (29-5) a 33-29 lead.
That seemed to set the tone as the Boilermakers defense slammed the door with a 22-4 run to open the second.
"The bottom line was we felt like we weren't rebounding and we felt like from free-throw line to free-throw line we were getting beat up and down the floor," Boilermakers coach Kristy Curry said. "So the kids did a better job of picking up the intensity the first five minutes of the second half. It set the tone.
"Whoever delivered the first punch, it was a knockout."
Notre Dame (21-11), which lost to Purdue 71-54 at home on Jan.4, managed one field goal over the first 51/2 minutes of the second. The Boilermakers started to hurry the ball down the floor for easy baskets in transition.