Florida State 80, Louisiana Tech 71
3/19/2006 12:48 AM
By DON MITCHELL
Associated Press Writer
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DENVER (AP) - Louisiana Tech guard Tasha Williams was clearly in pain, limping around the court every time the whistle blew.
Florida State saw the weakness and took advantage.
Holly Johnson scored 25 points, Alicia Gladden added 20 and Florida State used two big first-half runs to beat Louisiana Tech 80-71 Saturday night in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Florida State (20-9), the No. 6 seed, will play Stanford in the San Antonio Region Monday.
Louisiana Tech (26-5), the 11th seed, was led by Tamika Kursh's 12 points and had its 12-game winning streak snapped.
The Lady Techsters, with 899 wins in school history, lost in the first round for the second straight year and will have to wait until next season to join Tennessee as the only women's programs with 900 victories. The teams are the only schools to appear in all 25 NCAA tournaments.
Williams, Louisiana Tech's point guard and second-leading scorer with 13.1 points, injured her left foot in practice Wednesday and was using a crutch to move around on Friday.
She played 35 minutes, but was clearly bothered by her foot. She struggled to make cuts and was a step slow on defense.
Williams, MVP of the Western Athletic Conference tournament, went down hard while covering Johnson, slapping the floor a couple of times and grimacing when she got up midway through the second half.
She returned and finished with four points, scoring her first basket on a drive with just over 10 minutes remaining.
Florida State hit seven 3-pointers and pushed the pace the entire game, reaching the second round for the second straight year.
The Seminoles did it with runs of 12-0 and 11-4 in the first half.
Ganiyat Adeduntan started the first run with a 3-pointer and capped it with a short jumper to put Florida State up 26-16 with just over 11 minutes left. The Seminoles hit all five of their shots and Louisiana Tech turned the ball over five times and missed its only shot during the stretch.
Florida State, appearing in its sixth NCAA tournament, ended the first half with the 11-4 run to take a 43-32 lead at halftime. Johnson keyed the run with five points, including a high-arching 3-pointer.
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