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Home > SECWB News & More! > SEC Teams > LSU > We've Got Sylvia and You Don't (LSU v. UConn Recap)
We've Got Sylvia and You Don't (LSU v. UConn Recap)
by LeAnne Harrington
Posted: March 27th, 2007 @ 4:21am
For four straight years from 2000 to 2004, UConn’s rallying cry at Final Four time was “We have Diana Taurasi and you don’t.” Taurasi has gone on to fame and a decent paycheck in the WNBA, and, at least for tonight, it looks like she took UConn’s Final Four magic with her, as LSU defeated the Huskies 73-50 in the Fresno region final to make their own historic fourth straight trip to the Final Four. In a pregame press conference reminiscent of some of the best Laurel and Hardy routines, LSU interim head coach Bob Starkey and UConn coach Geno Auriemma were discussing their matchup in the Elite Eight. Starkey, whose laid-back plain-Joe style served as the perfect foil to Auriemma’s flashy sound-bite wit, quipped to the assembled media: “He (Auriemma) is a better coach, he’s a better looking guy, he’s a better dresser, he’s funnier than I am…” at which point Auriemma chimed in, “True… but he’s got Sylvia Fowles.” Oh how prophetic those words proved to be.
UConn entered the game on a mission: to get back to the Final Four and play for a sixth National Championship. They seemed more than capable of doing just that; UConn was a #1 seed and sported a 31-4 record and had already been in a regional final many times before. Twelve times to be exact. But one major hurdle stood in UConn’s way: Sylvia Fowles and her LSU team. UConn knew this would be a battle; when these two teams faced each other little more than a month ago in Baton Rouge, the Huskies emerged the one point victor and held the dubious distinction of having snapped the Lady Tigers’ 43-game home win streak. Fowles scored 22 points and pulled down 17 rebounds in that contest, so the Huskies knew they had to contain her in this matchup. How do you stop a player like Fowles? Don’t ask UConn’s inside duo of Tina Charles and Kaili McLaren -- they each went 0-5 from the field against her. Fowles put up almost identical numbers in this game, finishing with 23 points, 15 boards and 6 blocked shots. Fowles was such a dominant force in the paint she caused the Huskies to alter their shots, rushing many of them to avoid her next swat.
UConn fell behind early in the game and trailed LSU 34-22 at the half, their largest halftime deficit of the season. If not for the play of Renee Montgomery, the Huskies would have been down by even more. She led the Huskies with 17 points for the game. UConn made a run in the second half, but were never able to cut the lead to single digits. The final margin was LSU’s largest lead of the game. LSU played to their strengths and that meant their game plan centered around Fowles. Their outside shooters Allison Hightower and Ashley Thomas hit key 3-pointers, forcing UConn to extend their defense, which in turn opened up the middle for Fowles to do her damage. Fowles was named Most Outstanding Player of the Fresno Regional.
Don’t think the Lady Tigers will be content to just join Louisiana Tech, UT, and UConn as the only teams to make four straight trips to the Final Four. Contentment for this LSU team will only be found when they are the ones cutting down the nets in Cleveland. Can they do it? I wouldn’t bet against them. After all, they’ve got Sylvia Fowles and you don’t.
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