Tigers fall short of goal again

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Posted 9:43PM on Monday, April 4, 2005

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) LSU's incredible year ended just short of the team's goals again. The Lady Tigers (33-3), after losing in the semifinals of last year's NCAA tournament, set their sites on the championship this year. But once again LSU bowed out before the title game, losing to Baylor 68-57. ``We expected a national championship out of this team,'' LSU guard Scholanda Hoston said. ``We have everything here. We had the star players, we had the role players, we had the bench and we had the coaches. We had all of the elements. Anything short of that would be a huge disappointment.'' And it was. With the best player in the nation, Seimone Augustus, the best point guard, Temeka Johnson, and a dominating center in Sylvia Fowles, LSU worked toward the championship all year. ``It's kind of hard for reality to set in when so much was expected,'' said forward Wendlyn Jones. ``Me, personally, I'm really blown away by the whole thing, because I felt like we had everything we needed to succeed and win a national championship.'' After racing through their Southeastern Conference regular season undefeated, LSU was seeded No. 1 overall in the NCAA tournament. The Tigers, with experience from their Final Four trip last year, opened the tournament beating Stetson, Arizona and Liberty by 30 points or more. LSU rallied to beat Duke and went into the Baylor game with only one loss in the last 21 games a 67-65 loss to Tennessee in the SEC tournament finale. Early in the Baylor game it looked as if LSU would stay on track. The Tigers jumped out to an early 15-point lead but the Lady Bears came storming back to tie it at halftime. LSU then built a six-point lead in the second half, only to wilt again. ``We have a quote in our locker room that says you don't always get what you want, you get what you earn,'' LSU coach Pokey Chatman said. ``I don't think our kids did enough to earn it. We got beat in the paint, we got beat in execution and that right there was the ballgame.'' LSU got to within six in the final 90 seconds, then missed two shots, bricked a free throw and turned the ball over on its last four possessions. ``You can't ever be happy when you lose, especially on a stage like this,'' Augustus said. Augustus scored 22 points but shot just 10-for-26 and took four three pointers something she rarely does only to miss them all. Fowles, LSU's muscular 6-foot-5 freshman, added 13 points and 12 rebounds and Johnson had 14 points and seven assists and five steals. Johnson, who closed out her career at LSU, moved into fifth-place on the NCAA career assist list during the game, passing Old Dominion's Ticha Penicheiro. Johnson could have left LSU last season, but returned this year hoping to join her teammates in earning a national title. ``I still think we are the best team in the country,'' Johnson said. ``It just didn't show. ``There will never be another team like this at LSU.'' (Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)