Rutgers advances with win over LSU

Published Monday, April 2, 2007

CLEVELAND (AP) - C. Vivian Stringer fluctuated between stoic confidence and utter disbelief.

Her inexperienced Rutgers team, with five freshmen and no seniors, had just crushed LSU and earned its first trip to the NCAA championship game.

This just isn’t the year that she, or anyone else, expected Rutgers to have.

"I do believe this is a team of destiny and there’s a sense of calm," Stringer said.

Rutgers’ improbable season continued with a dominating 59-35 victory over LSU last night. Up next is powerhouse Tennessee, which rallied from 12 points down in the second half to beat North Carolina 56-50.

Stringer, the first coach to take three teams to the Final Four, has another shot at her first title - 25 seasons after taking Cheyney to the championship game.

She’s doing it with first-year players who might not realize how rare an opportunity they have.

"We haven’t really pounded it into their heads this is the Final Four," Stringer said.

The Scarlet Knights have a chance to make history for a school that last earned an NCAA team championship in 1949 - sharing a fencing title with Army.

Swarming defense and a hot touch behind the arc blew out LSU, which scored the fewest points ever in the Final Four - Louisiana Tech had 44 vs. Tennessee in the ’87 title game.

Matee Ajavon scored 16 points and hit four 3-pointers to help Rutgers build an insurmountable first-half lead.

The Scarlet Knights (27-8) hounded 6-foot-6 Sylvia Fowles, who appeared aggravated by the relentless defenders. She was held to five points, which tied a season low, and seven rebounds.

"Not taking anything from Rutgers’ defense, but I don’t feel that they had to do much," Fowles said. "I just think I had a sluggish game from the get-go."

The Lady Tigers (30-8) ended a surprising tournament run behind acting Coach Bob Starkey, who was thrust into the job when Coach Pokey Chatman abruptly resigned March 7 amid allegations of improper conduct with one or more former players.

"I did tell the team that if I never coached again that I was thrilled that this was the last team I coached," Starkey said.

Frustrated with the team’s poor defensive play early in the season, Stringer took away the team’s locker room privileges last December for a month.

Now, they are the third No. 4 seed to reach the championship.

In the closing minutes of last night’s game, the Rutgers crowd chanted Stringer’s initials, "C-V-S," as she high-fived an assistant. After the final buzzer, the entire staff hugged Stringer.

"Wow. That’s the best word to describe what happened here," Stringer said. "We talked about believing in what we know. No one expected us to be here, but these players believe in themselves. We focused on the defense. We didn’t read into the hype.

"Guess we’ll see all you guys here on Tuesday."

Essence Carson helped set the tone for yesterday’s celebration, scoring 15 points before leaving with leg cramps in the second half. She hit three 3-pointers, and Rutgers was 10 of 20 from behind the arc but only 20 of 51 overall.

"It feels great to have gotten this far. But we can’t give up now. Why just settle for this?" Carson said. "We came from nothing and built our foundation."