SAN ANTONIO REGIONAL
Smith powers Cardinal to victory
Showing off a variety of hooks, fadeaway jumpers and other moves, Brooke Smith made 14 of 16 shots and finished with a career-high 35 points, leading Stanford past Oklahoma 88-74 Saturday in the semifinals of the San Antonio Regional.
The third-seeded Cardinal (26-7) made eight of their first nine shots and led 19-4 before the game was 5 minutes old. While Smith was doing her thing on offense, Kristen Newlin and Candice Wiggins were doing a tremendous job double-teaming Courtney Paris, taking her out of the dominating form that had led second-seeded Oklahoma (31-5) to 19 straight wins.
Paris, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound freshman, had as many first-half turnovers (four) as field goals.
Stanford will play top-seeded LSU on Monday night, with the winner going to the Final Four.
Paris finished with 26 points and 16 rebounds. Her 12th board was her 535th of the season, breaking the NCAA record set by Drake’s Wanda Ford in 1984-85.
(1) LSU (30-3)66
(4) DePaul (27-7)56
When reigning player of the year and national scoring leader Seimone Augustus missed a fast-break layup that would’ve broken an early second-half tie, it looked like LSU might have serious trouble shaking DePaul.
Turns out, it only delayed things by a few possessions.
The Lady Tigers scored the game’s next 12 points, six by Augustus, and used tight defense to pull away from the Blue Demons for a victory in the semifinals of the San Antonio Regional.
Augustus finished with 18 points – and a twisted ankle – and Sylvia Fowles had 13 points and 19 rebounds to help send top-seeded LSU into the regional finals for the fourth straight year.
Augustus injured her left ankle on a drive to the basket with 1:43 left.
She needed help getting to the bench. Although she went back into the game shortly after, she was gimpy.
ALBUQUERQUE REGIONAL
(5) Utah (27-6)57
(8) Boston Coll. (21-12)54
Utah scoring star Kim Smith had one of the toughest shooting nights of her career, but the Utes still beat Boston College to advance to their first NCAA tournament regional final.
The Utes, with Joh-Teena Filipe, Shona Thorburn and Julie Larsen taking up the scoring load, beat the Eagles and will play second-seeded Maryland in Monday’s regional final.
Boston College had three late chances to force overtime but Brooke Queenan, who led the eighth-seeded Eagles with 21 points, missed three 3-pointers in the final 1:05.
(2) Maryland (31-4)82
(3) Baylor (26-7)63
Maryland’s national player of the year candidate got the best of Baylor and its big star.
Crystal Langhorne matched a career-high with 34 points and added 15 rebounds, leading the Terrapins to a win over the Bears, eliminating Sophia Young and the defending national champions from the NCAA tournament.
Young scored 26 points on 11-of-25 shooting.