 |
Today is Tuesday, Feb 9, 2010 |
| Home | BPNews | Subscribe to BP | Tell A Friend | Contact Us |
|
Top-seeded LSU ends Liberty's Cinderella run Tuesday, Mar 29, 2005 By Todd Wetmore |
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (BP)--Seimone Augustus put another exclamation point on her National Player of the Year season as the junior scored 22 points to propel top-seeded LSU to the regional finals of the Chattanooga Regional with a 90-48 victory over 13th-seeded Liberty March 26 at the McKenzie Arena.With the victory, LSU, who spent 11 weeks as the top ranked team in the land this season, upped its record to 32-2 on the year and went on to defeat Duke for a spot in the Final Four. The loss ends the Lady Flames' Cinderella run as Liberty (26-7) became just the second team in NCAA Tournament history to advance to the Sweet 16 as a 13th-seeded team. Liberty advanced to the Chattanooga Regional after upset victories over fourth-seeded Penn State and fifth-seeded DePaul in the first and second rounds of the tournament, marking the first time in Lady Flames' history that Liberty has posted a single win in their nine-consecutive year NCAA Tournament run. The Lady Tigers started the game by scoring the first 17 points of the contest, beginning with a jumper by Temeka Johnson at the 17:12 mark of the first half to give the Lady Tigers an 8-0 lead, while Johnson extended LSU's advantage to 11 points on the team's next possession as she nailed a three-pointer with 16:35 left to play. The Lady Tigers' run continued over the next three minutes of play as a fast break lay-up by Scholarnda Hoston gave LSU a 17-0 lead at the 13:27 mark. The Lady Flames, who missed their first nine attempts from the floor, finally got on the scoreboard as Kristal Tharp was able to sink a pair of free throws with 13:08 left to play in the first half to trim the lead to 17-2. Liberty recorded its first successful field goal of the game at the 10:50 mark as Diana Staugaitiene nailed a three-pointer, pulling Liberty to within 16 points, 21-5. LSU's lead hovered round the same margin over the next six minutes of the game until a jumper by Johnson started a 16-5 end of the half run for the Lady Tigers, allowing LSU to head into the locker room with a 46-16 lead. The Lady Tigers shot an impressive 64.5 percent from the field in the first half (20-of-31), while holding Liberty to just 27.3 percent from the floor (6-of-22). Augustus paced LSU in the first half with 18 points, while Katie Feenstra, who entered the game averaging 25.5 points and 12.0 rebounds per game in the NCAA Tournament along with a 73.1 field goal shooting percentage, was held to just five points on 2-of-8 shooting. The halftime break didn't seem to slow the Lady Tigers down as LSU got a three-pointer by Hoston and a jumper by Augustus to push LSU's lead to 35 points, 51-16, just one minute into the second half. Over the remaining 19 minutes of the contest, the closest that Liberty would get would be 30 points on two different occasions, as Allyson Fasnacht connected on a three-pointer off a feed from Tharp at the 17:31 mark, 54-24, and on a Feenstra jumper with 6:59 left to play in the contest, 71-41. LSU's 42-point victory over Liberty marked the second largest margin of victory in a Sweet 16 game, which was paced by a pair of 22-point performances by Hoston and Augustus. Hoston was 8-for-14 from the field, including 3-of-5 from three-point range, while Augustus was 10-of-12 from the floor, helping the top-seeded Lady Tigers finish the game shooting 58.7 percent from the field. Staugaitiene led the Lady Flames in the scoring column as the senior was the only player to reach double figures by scoring 10 points, while Katie Feenstra fell just one point short of recording her 50th career double-double as she pulled down a game-best 12 rebounds, while scoring just nine points on 4-of-15 shooting from the field. Liberty's senior class wrapped up a sensational four-year career as they end with a 100-26 record, posting the best four-year win total of any Lady Flames' team in school history. Not only will they leave, collectively, as the best team in Liberty history, but the five seniors will leave with their names stamped all over the Lady Flames' record books. Feenstra will exit as one of, if not the best player to ever put on a Liberty uniform as she ranks first in career field goal percentage, rebounds and block shots, while ranking second in career points. Tharp leaves ranked seventh in school history in career points and first in free throw percentage, while Staugaitiene ranks fourth in career assists and 12th in points. Rima Margeviciute, who was hampered by injuries most of her first three seasons, saved her best season for her season campaign as she leaves ranked 43rd the Lady Flames' all-time scoring list, while Stephanie Walker, who too has been plagued by injuries, closes out an inspirational career, scoring the 44th most career points. --30--
|
 |
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
WWW.BPSPORTS.NET
Copyright (c) 2001 - 2010 Southern Baptist Convention Terms of Use |
901 Commerce Street Nashville, TN 37203 Tel: 615.782.8615 Fax: 615.782.8736 |