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LOUISIANA ADVANCES TO SWEET SIXTEEN WITH WIN OVER OHIO STATE The fifth-seeded Louisiana Tech women's basketball team advanced to the sweet sixteen with a 74-61 win over fourth-seeded Ohio State on Tuesday in Ruston. Two-time Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year scored 25 points and added 15 rebounds to lead the Lady Techsters to the win. Louisiana Tech will face instate rival and No. 1 seeded LSU on March 30.
WEST REGIONAL1. LSU
2. Texas3. Stanford
4. Ohio State
5. Louisiana Tech
6. Minnesota7. Arkansas
8. Wisconsin-Green Bay
9. Washington
10. Syracuse
11. St. Peters
12. Pepperdine
13. Weber State
14. Western Michigan
15. Hampton
16. SW Texas State
Bold = remaining teams
Final Four Although the Louisiana Tech program has plenty of impressive stats and facts to boast about, perhaps the most impressive fact is this: every four year letter winner in the history of the program has participated in at least one Final Four. During the 28 year history of the program, Tech has advanced to 13 Final Fours. Senior center Cheryl Ford has never been to a Final Four for Tech.
PACK YOUR BAGS The cross-country travel is no big deal for Louisiana Tech. Since joining the WAC last year, the Lady Techsters have traveled to Honolulu, Hawaii, Fresno, Calif., San Jose, Calif., Boise, Idaho and Reno, Nevada. The Lady Techsters are actually quite used to heading out to the Pacific time zone.
THE WEST REGIONAL The Lady Techsters will travel to California to take on in state rival LSU. Louisiana Tech holds a 14-6 advantage in the all-time series with the Tigers. In fact, the first win in the storied history of the Lady Techsters occurred against LSU in the 1974-75 season with Tech winning 97-83 in Ruston.
Louisiana Tech is 8-3 all-time when put in the West Region of the NCAA Tournament. This is the fourth time the Lady Techsters have been a part of the West, the last time coming in the 1999 Tournament when Tech advanced to the Final Four.
Louisiana Tech is 22-8 against the West Region field. The Lady Techsters own a 14-6 record against LSU and an 8-2 mark against Texas. Louisiana Tech has never faced Minnesota in womens basketball.
THE WAC IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT The WAC owns an all-time record of 70-34 (.673) in NCAA Tournament games. The 10 teams from the 2002-03 season own an 13-21 record (.382) as WAC members. Louisiana Tech is 64-19 (.771) in NCAA play.
THE WAC IN THE WNIT The WAC owns an all-time record of 15-16 (.484) in WNIT games. The 10 teams currently in the WAC own an 13-10 (.565) record in WNIT games, 9-8 (.529) as WAC members. In 2000-01, Hawaii advanced to the semifinals of the WNIT, falling to New Mexico. Last season, both Hawaii and Rice fell in the first round.
FRESNO STATE LOSES IN WNIT QUARTERFINALS After holding a comfortable lead for the entire first half, Fresno State shot just 16.2-percent in the second period in a 72-65 loss to Baylor in the quarterfinals of the WNIT on Wednesday night.
Fresno State finishes the 2002-03 season at 21-13 overall, a program-best 12-game improvement over last year's 9-20 ledger. The successful campaign marks Fresno State's first winning season since the team went 14-13 in 1996-97.
Senior Lindsay Logan (Sandy, Utah) closed out her Bulldog career with the squad's first 30-point performance of the year. Fellow senior Omelogo Udeze (Los Angeles, Calif.) recorded her 12th double-double of the year, tallying 11 points and 14 rebounds in the loss.
HAWAII FALLS IN WNIT Hawaii's season came to a close with a 57-44 loss to Arizona State in the first round of the Women's National Invitation Tournament Thursday night at the Wells Fargo Arena. The Rainbow Wahine, who were playing on the road for the eighth time in the last 10 games, battled throughout but ran out of gas in a low-scoring defensive battle.
UH, making its fourth consecutive appearance in the WNIT, ended its season at 16-14. It is the eighth season in a row the program has finished with a winning record. ASU (16-3), meanwhile, advanced to the second round where they will next travel to Baylor.
Three Rainbow Wahine finished in double figures led by Jade Abele and Kim Willoughby with 11 points each. Senior Christen Roper, playing the final game of her career finished with 10 points, nine rebounds and seven blocks. The seven blocks set a new single-game WNIT record. Roper finished with 110 blocks on the season and 303 for her career.
Ultimately it was ASU's youth over UH's experience. The squad's top three scorers are freshman and top gun Jill Noe scored 13 of her game-high 18 points in the second half to put the Rainbow Wahine away. Noe drained four 3-pointers and added eight rebounds and four assists.
RECORDS SET Several records were broken at this year's WAC Tournament. In the championship game against Fresno State, Louisiana Tech's Cheryl Ford set the record for rebounds in a game with 25. This was also a new single-season WAC record. The former tournament record was 19 held by Utah's Amber McEwen in 1996. Ford also set the record for rebounds in the tournament with 45.
Seventh-seeded SMU's win over second-seeded Rice was the biggest upset based on seeds in WAC Tournament history. Louisiana Tech broke the record for free throw percentage in the tournament, shooting .857 (48-of-56) in three games. Boise State set the record for field goal percentage in a game, shooting .659 (27-of-41) in a win against UTEP.
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM Louisiana Tech's Cheryl Ford earned all-tournament honors for the second-straight season also grabbing tournament MVP this season. The senior center is the only repeat member of the all-tournament team. Ford set a new WAC Tournament record with 45 rebounds in three games. Ford was joined by teammates Trina Frierson and Amber Obaze. Frierson lead the team with 18 points, while Obaze scored 17 points with eight rebounds.
Fresno State's Lindsay Logan and Omelogo Udeze were also named to the all-tournament team. Logan, a senior, scored 15 points in the loss. Udeze was a force throughout the tournament.
LADY TECHSTERS CAPTURE SECOND-STRAIGHT WAC TOURNAMENT TITLE Louisiana Tech completed its perfect Western Athletic Conference season as the sixth-ranked Lady Techsters defeated Fresno State, 89-57, in the championship game.
Louisiana Tech ended the regular season with an 18-0 record. The Lady Techsters came out strong in the first half opening up a 14-point halftime lead, and then delivered the knockout punch in the final 20 minutes, out-scoring the Bulldogs 42-24.
Cheryl Ford, the tournament MVP, scored 14 points and pulled down a record-setting and career-high 25 rebounds to lead five Louisiana Tech players in double figures. Ford's 25 rebounds broke the WAC single- game record and the WAC Tournament single- game record, while her 45 rebounds in three conference tournament games also set a new mark.
LOUISIANA TECH'S FORD REWRITES RECORD BOOK With eight rebounds against UTEP on March 1, Louisiana Tech senior Cheryl Ford broke the WAC single-season record for total rebounds. The record was held by Utah's Tanya Zachary with 311 during the 1991-92 season. She currently has 423 rebounds. The two-time WAC Player of the Year also broke her own record for rebounds in a WAC season. She had 252 league rebounds, breaking her record of 188 from last season. This season, Ford is averaging 12.8 rebounds which is among the best in the nation.
HAWAII'S ROPER BREAKS SINGLE-SEASON BLOCK RECORD Senior Christen Roper reached a milestone when she broke the career blocks record Feb. 27 against Tulsa. Roper and Tulsa's Alyssa Shriver have been among the nation's best in blocks all season. The record was held by BYU's Debbie Dimond (1991-95). Dimond had 268 career blocks. Roper started the season third in the WAC behind Dimond and San Diego State's Michelle Suman. Roper's 81 blocks this season propelled her into first place. She now has 303 career blocks
At the WAC Tournament, the senior added to her accomplishments by breaking her own single-season block record. During the 2000-01 season, Roper had 96 blocks. She ended the season with 110 blocks.
TULSA'S CURTIN SELECTED AS SEMIFINALIST FOR STUDENT ATHLETE AWARD Tulsa's Allison Curtin is one of 10 women's basketball players from around the nation to be selected as a semifinalist for the Creamland Dairies Women's Collegiate Basketball Student-Athletic of the Year award. She was initially named to a list of 31 players and was included among the 10 semifinalists announced on March 3. Three finalists will be named during the NCAA Basketball Tournament. The 2002-03 award winner will be named on April 9, 2003, in Albuquerque, N.M. Jimmy Dykes, College Basketball Analyst for ESPN, will emcee the events.
NON-CONFERENCE MARK WAC teams are 57-47 (.548) in non-conference games. The WAC is 4-11 against non-conference teams that are ranked or were ranked in the top 25. Louisiana Tech is 3-1 after defeating then-No. 7 Texas Tech and then-No. 25 New Mexico, No. 23 Ohio State, but falling to No. 5 Tennessee. Tulsa is 0-4 after falling to then-No. 24 Mississippi State, then-No. 22 Oklahoma, No. 13 Arkansas and No. 1 Duke. SMU has a win over Oklahoma and a loss to Boston College.
SINGLE-SEASON RECORDS Several WAC players made it into the single-season top 10. Louisiana Tech's Cheryl Ford set the record for total rebounds with 423 and rebound average with 12.8. Hawaii's Christen Roper set the record for total blocks with 110.
IN THE POLLS Louisiana Tech is the only WAC team ranked in both the Associated Press and the ESPN polls. This week, the Lady Techsters remain No. 6 in the AP poll, the Lady Techsters highest ranking of the season. The Lady Techsters are also No. 6 in the ESPN poll. This is the 22nd time in the 27-year history of the AP poll, Louisiana Tech finished ranked in the Top 10.
The Lady Techsters started the season ranked No. 16 in the country, quickly moved up to No. 10 after a season-opening victory against No. 7 Texas Tech, never fell below No. 17 and finished the year ranked No. 6 in the final four polls. The Lady Techsters have now been ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 for 197 straight weeks, dating back to Nov. 24, 1992.
The only years Louisiana Tech failed to finish in the nation's top 10 were 1976-77, 1977-78, 1990-91, 1991-92 and 1992-93.
20 SOMETHING Louisiana Tech was the only WAC team this season to reach the 20-win plateau during the regular season. With its 29-game winning streak, the Lady Techsters rached 30 wins in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Fresno State reached the 20-win mark in the WNIT and ended the season with 21 wins, one shy of the school record.