Hi, five

• By WILLIAM WEATHERS
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Apr 1, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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NEW ORLEANS — The LSU women’s basketball team had the perfect travel guides to get to the Women’s Final Four in Tampa, Fla.

Seniors Sylvia Fowles and Erica White, the team’s native Floridians, did their best to ensure their careers will conclude in their home state.

Fowles earned her second straight NCAA region MVP honor — scoring a team-high 21 points and pulling down 11 rebounds — while White scored six of her eight points from the free throw line in the last 93 seconds of play, leading second-seeded LSU to a 56-50 victory Monday over top-seeded North Carolina before 5,067 at the New Orleans Arena to capture the New Orleans regional championship.

“I’m exhausted,” White said. “I’m just happy for the program.”

The victory sends LSU (31-5) back to the Women’s Final Four for the fifth consecutive year where they will face either Tennessee or Texas A&M in Sunday’s national semifinal at the St. Petersburg Times Forum.

With the fifth consecutive trip, LSU matched the NCAA record of five straight appearances set by Connecticut (2000-04) and stopped the Tar Heels’ bid for a third straight showing.

“I’m proud of these kids and I’m proud for all of us, too,” said LSU first-year coach Van Chancellor, who will make his first trip to the Final Four after four Elite Eight appearances during his 19 seasons at Ole Miss. “This is one of the greatest moments I’ve ever had in coaching.

“We handled their pressure. I thought the key to the whole game was rebounding the ball. We did not give them a lot of second shots. We’ve been a great defensive team all year. This is just unbelievable.”

LSU won with its trademark stifling defense — the nation’s best at 50.6 points. The Lady Tigers have been even better during the NCAA tournament where they limited the opposition to 44 points per game.

North Carolina, the nation’s top scoring team at 87.3 points, was limited to a season-low point total and managed the second worst production in the program’s NCAA tournament history after losing 56-50 to Tennessee in last year’s national semifinal. UNC shot 34 percent from the field Monday night.

“I thought defensively we did a pretty good job,” said UNC coach Sylvia Hatchell, whose team had its 16-game win streak stopped and finished 33-3. “A team scored 56 points and beat us. That’s like a nightmare. I’ve been telling the players the all along the only team that could beat Carolina was Carolina. We didn’t get our offense going. We didn’t fast break like we normally do. We just didn’t get out game going tonight.”

LSU, which led 24-21 at halftime, opened a 30-23 edge out of the locker room at the 16:28 mark.

The Lady Tigers, who shot 45 percent in the half, made three of their first five shots with Fowles following her own miss before taking a feed from Quianna Chaney, dropping it in for a bucket and forced UNC into a timeout.