Owls Fall to LSU in NCAA Tournament

Saturday, March 18

Nashville, Tenn.

2:30 PM

Florida Atlantic

LSU

Florida Atlantic

Louisiana State

3/18/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

March 18, 2006

Final Stats | Photo Gallery

NASHVILLE, TN--- The first trip to the NCAA Division I tournament for the Florida Atlantic University women's basketball team didn't end as planned as the 16-seeded Owls fell to the top- seeded Louisiana State Lady Tigers 72-48 on Saturday afternoon at Memorial Gym.

"We were able to play FAU basketball for the first 10 minutes, but their athletic ability took over," head coach Chancellor Dugan said. "They (LSU) are a great basketball team, but our girls had a great year as well."

After 8:18 of play the Owls and Tigers were knotted up at 11, but LSU went on a 20-to-3 run to hold a 31-14 lead with 3:24 left in the first half. Seimone Augustus scored 16 of her game-high 22 points in the first half to help give the Tigers a 35-18 lead at the break. The first 20 minutes of action featured three ties and six lead changes. FAU won the rebounding battle 25-23 in the first half, but the Tigers cashed in 20 points in the paint.

The Tigers extended their halftime lead to 65-31 at the 7:56 mark of the second half connecting on 11-of-18 shots through the first 12 minutes of the half.

They Owls continued to fight, but the deficit was too large to overcome. Demina Anderson scored a career-high 17 points on 7-of-14 shooting and Shuteamia Brayboy dished out three assists to set the all-time single season assists record with 181 helpers on the year.

Shontavia Williams and Brittney Crenshaw ripped down eight rebounds each to lead the Owls. Ashley Thomas led the Tigers with 13 boards.

FAU scored 26 points off of the bench, but LSU converted 25 Owl turnovers into 31 points.

Florida Atlantic will departing the Atlantic Sun as Conference Champions and will be moving into the Sun Belt Conference next season.