Rabalais: Slice of history
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NEW ORLEANS — Erica White paraded around the New Orleans Arena court with a purple and gold LSU flag, then took a long look up at the net before climbing the ladder to cut down her piece.
She and the Lady Tigers have now cut out their own piece of history, something they share with only one other program.
LSU had just taken down North Carolina, 56-50, holding the nation’s No. 1-ranked offense 37 points below its season average in the NCAA New Orleans regional final.
The win over North Carolina secured LSU’s NCAA record-tying fifth straight Women’s Final Four appearance, a feat matched only by long-time national power Connecticut.
UConn’s streak came to a triumphant end in this very same building with a national championship in 2004, the same year LSU began its record-tying run.
OK, let’s get it out of the way. A one and a two … LSU has never won a game in the Final Four. It’s a refrain sure to be repeated a few million times before the Lady Tigers tip off in their national semifinal Sunday night in Tampa, Fla.
It all looked so scripted a couple of years ago when the NCAA announced this year’s tournament sites leading up to the Final Four. LSU would host first- and second-round games in Baton Rouge, and the NCAA awarded a regional to New Orleans. You didn’t have to be a bracketologist to think that with Sylvia Fowles and Quianna Chaney and White being seniors this season that they would have a relatively easy drive for five in store.
Of course, it’s never that easy. First, White had to go 12 rounds with Oklahoma State point guard Andrea Riley in Saturday’s regional semifinal. White was struck on the head by Riley unseen by the officials (and many of us in the media covering the game) with an unsportsmanlike outburst that should draw some sort of suspension.
Monday, LSU had to wave its defensive wand and try to slow down a North Carolina team that typically scores so many points it would make this building’s regular tenants — the New Orleans Hornets — teal with envy.
The Lady Tigers did just that. Once again the old axiom was proven true: a good defense beats a good offense. LSU ended up cutting down the nets that North Carolina simply couldn’t find often enough.
Another saying was proven true, a phrase coined by UConn’s Gino Auriemma before his team was done in by the Lady Tigers 73-50 in last year’s Fresno regional final: LSU has Sylvia Fowles.
North Carolina had three long and talented post players surrounding her in Erlana Larkins, LaToya Pringle and Rashanda McCants. None of them could stop Fowles as she powered to the basket for 21 points, pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds, blocked five shots and altered the very nature of North Carolina’s attack-the-rim offense.
In the Lady Tigers’ proud basketball history, taking the fifth may have been the best win yet.
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