March 15, 1999
Box Score
By MARY FOSTER
AP Sports Writer
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- Latasha Dorsey saved her best for her final home
game.
Dorsey, a senior guard, scored 24 points, including a career-best five
3-pointers, as LSU rallied for a 74-64 victory over Notre Dame in the second
round of the NCAA West Regional on Monday night.
"My shot was falling for me, so I was more confident shooting it," Dorsey
said. "I just didn't want to lose on my home floor. It was very emotional. I
just knew we needed this game, so I stepped up and did what I had to do."
LSU, ranked No. 21, went on a 15-2 run over the final 6 1/2 minutes of the game
as April Brown and Katrina Hibbert scored 3-pointers and Dorsey scored nine
points, including a 3-pointer and four straight free throws.
"She did absolutely everything she had to, stepping up and hitting the free
throws when she had to, and just a killer 3, a killer 3 in the last couple of
minutes," LSU coach Sue Gunter said.
The victory sends LSU to the round of 16 in Los Angles for a Saturday game
against Louisiana Tech (28-2).
Hibbert scored 15 points for LSU despite sitting out much of the first half,
Brown had 12 and Marie Ferdinand scored 11.
LSU (22-7) fell behind early in the second half as the Fighting Irish slowed
down the game and shot a sizzling 85 percent from the field, to go ahead by as
much as nine points.
No. 8 Notre Dame (26-5), after averaging just 19 turnovers a game this
season, committed 27 against the Tigers and could not cope with their speed and
pressing defense.
"We hurt ourselves," a tearful Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said. "We
had too many turnovers and poor free throw shooting. We're one of the best free
throw shooting teams in America and we were missing them."
The Irish made just 9-of-15 free throws and missed four of six in the final
eight minutes.
Ruth Riley led Notre Dame with 20 points and 10 rebounds. She also had four
assists and three blocked shots. Danielle Green scored 19 points and Kelley
Siemon added 10.
In the first half, LSU used its quickness to counter Notre Dame's size and
sharp perimeter shooting to take a 38-32 halftime lead despite being outshot 52
percent to 41 percent.
Notre Dame opened the second half with a 10-0 run to take a 42-38 lead at
the 15:28 mark. The Irish shot 85 percent over the first 7:43 of the half to 35
percent for LSU, to stretch their lead to 59-51.
"I thought we were struggling a little bit from the outside," Hibbert
said. "We weren't really attacking their defense."
DeTrina White, whose 24 points against Evansville helped propel the Tigers
into the second round, fouled out with 8:32 left. Hibbert, LSU's leading scorer
averaging 14.8 a game, played only seven minutes of the first half.
