Taurasi, Beard Top All-America Team

Connecticut’s Diana Taurasi and Duke’s Alana Beard led their teams to the Final Four and now have something else to celebrate: Unanimous selections to the women’s basketball AP All-America team.

Mississippi State’s LaToya Thomas, Kansas State’s Nicole Ohlde and Penn State’s Kelly Mazzante also were picked by the 44-member national media panel that votes on the weekly top 25.

Taurasi and Beard were first-team choices on every ballot. Thomas was the only other player on each ballot.

Beard and Thomas made the first team for the second straight year, while Taurasi and Mazzante moved up from last season’s second team. Ohlde received honorable mention last year.

Thomas is a senior; the other four All-Americans are juniors.

Taurasi became Connecticut’s leader after four seniors graduated from last season’s unbeaten national championship team. Despite a sore back and right ankle, Taurasi led Connecticut (35-1) to its fourth consecutive appearance in the Final Four.

She led the Huskies in scoring (16.3), rebounding (6.2) and assists (4.6) during the regular season. She has been even better in the NCAA tournament, averaging 25.8 points and shooting 59%.

Beard averaged 21.8 points in the regular season and is Duke’s best defender.

Making the second team were Vanderbilt’s Chantelle Anderson, Stanford’s Nicole Powell, Tennessee’s Kara Lawson, South Carolina’s Jocelyn Penn and Minnesota’s Lindsay Whalen.

*

The Florida women’s basketball and volleyball teams canceled trips to Europe because of the war in Iraq and terrorism concerns.

The basketball team was scheduled to travel to France in August, and the volleyball team was to go to Germany and Belgium in May for exhibition games.