Boston ? Duke’s defense ganged up on the smoothest scorer in women’s college basketball, shutting down Seimone Augustus and blowing LSU away Sunday night to set up an all-ACC matchup for the NCAA title.
Mistie Williams had 14 points and nine rebounds to lead Duke to a 64-45 victory over the Lady Tigers in the tournament semifinal. Seimone Augustus was scoreless in the first half, picking up her team-high 14 points long after it was no longer in doubt.
“It was a team effort defensively,” Duke coach Gail Goestenkors said. “And it really takes a team to defend Seimone Augustus.”
The Blue Devils (31-3) used an 11-1 run midway through the second half to open a 48-32 lead and advance to the championship game against Maryland, which beat North Carolina 81-70 earlier. Duke went 2-1 against the Terrapins during the season, losing in the semifinals of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament.
LSU (31-4) was just the seventh school to place its men’s and women’s teams in the Final Four in the same season. But, like the Lady Tigers, the men were blown out in the national semifinals, losing 59-45 to UCLA on Saturday.
One night after playground playmate Glen Davis shot 29 percent in the LSU loss, Augustus went without a point or rebound in the first half. The nation’s leading scorer with 23 points per game did not score until 17:39 remained in the game.
“That’s not the motion offense that got us here,” Augustus said.
Monique Currie scored 13 points, Abby Waner had 11 and Lindsey Harding had 10 with six rebounds for Duke.
