LSU 72, Florida Atlantic 48

3/18/2006 6:03 PM

By TERESA M. WALKER
AP Sports Writer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - LSU coach Pokey Chatman is not happy after her top-seeded Tigers opened up their chase for a national title with a mixture of rust and complacency.

Sure, the Tigers advanced with a 72-48 victory Saturday in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. But they can thank Seimone Augustus, the nation's leading scorer, with making things a little easier against tournament newcomer Florida Atlantic.

``I wish I could tell you it was an X's and O's thing,'' Chatman said of a sluggish start that saw the 16th-seeded Owls leading 14-13 midway through the first half.

``That's part of the struggle and the frustration. We didn't pull out a marker and get on the board at halftime. We just kind of appealed to their competitive nature and challenged them in terms of where they want to go and how they want their season to play out.''

The Tigers (28-3) want to help Augustus cap her fabulous career with the championship that eluded them in their previous two trips to the Final Four, but they hadn't played since losing the Southeastern Conference tournament championship to Tennessee on March 5.

Augustus got them going by nearly outscoring Florida Atlantic (20-11) by herself with 22 points in 27 minutes, including 10 points in a 20-0 run.

``Seimone is Seimone and what that is, she can create opportunities for herself,'' Chatman said of her star senior. ``She understands how to get opportunities through our system. But she also is smart enough to understand we didn't do it for long stretches of time today.''

LSU will play No. 9 seed Washington, a 73-69 winner over Minnesota, in the second round of the San Antonio Regional on Monday night.

The Tigers (28-3) started a little sluggishly and even trailed 14-13 before Augustus, the two-time SEC and last year's national player of the year, took control. LSU finished off the first half with a 22-4 run that included 10 of Augustus' 16 points in leading 35-18 at halftime.

``I'm not complaining about it at all,'' Chatman said of the run. ``But we wasted about 7 1/2 or 8 minutes before we got into the scouting report offensively.''

Augustus hit more shots by herself than Florida Atlantic (20-11) in the first half (eight to seven). When she reached 22 points in the second half, it matched the Owls' total at the time.

``I think a lot of it had to do with the inexperience of playing on such a big stage and such a very important game,'' Florida Atlantic coach Chancellor Dugan said.

From then on, it was only a question of whether or not LSU would match or top its previous biggest margin of victory in the NCAA tournament. The Tigers had a 42-point victory over No. 13 seed Liberty in the regional semifinals last year and led by as much as 36 three different times.

Chatman, hoping to get her Tigers to a third straight Final Four, eased up and benched Augustus and her starters midway through the second half.

Sylvia Fowles added 15 points for LSU, Quianna Chaney had 11 and Ashley Thomas grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds.

Florida Atlantic didn't look intimidated at all despite this being the Owls' first NCAA appearance. With senior guard Shontavia Williams having played against some of the Tigers in high school in Miami, that probably helped.

The Owls held a 16-10 edge through a tight first 10 minutes as the teams swapped the lead six times with three ties.

But LSU simply was faster and more athletic. The Tigers came up with nine steals in the first half that started fast break after fast break and finished with a team tournament record 17 steals.

Demina Anderson led the Owls with 17 points, and her layup with 10:24 gave Florida Atlantic its last lead before Augustus took over.

``What surprised me was the fact we were in the game with them in the first 10 minutes,'' Anderson said. ``I mean this is LSU. Everyone expected us not to win and not to be in the game. Pretty much all my friends told me we were going to lose by 40 points, which we didn't.''

By the time Anderson scored on a layup with 2:31, that only cut the Owls' deficit to 33-16.

When Missy Glaser added two free throws with 1:22 left, that kept the Owls from matching the fewest points allowed by LSU in tournament since Stephen F. Austin had 14 in the second half on March 19, 2000.