Rutgers concentrates on Fowles, upsets LSU

Louisiana State’s improbable run through the NCAA women’s basketball tournament ended abruptly Sunday night against another tournament upstart, an even less likely Final Four participant than the Tigers.

Rutgers, seeded fourth in the Greensboro Regional and trying to become the lowest-seeded team to win the NCAA tournament, dominated LSU from the start in Quicken Loans Arena and breezed to a 59-35 victory in the national semifinals.

And when its fans chanted “C-V-S” in the closing minutes, it was in tribute not to a pharmacy but to a veteran coach who has taken three schools to the Final Four (none to a title) but has waited 25 years to return to the championship game.

C. Vivian Stringer was on the losing end in the first NCAA women’s basketball final in 1982, her Cheyney State team losing to Louisiana Tech, 76-62.

She’ll get another chance at a title with a 27-8 team that started the season by losing four of its first six games, among them an overtime defeat at Pepperdine, but now wins consistently with a suffocating defense and, against LSU, the long-range shooting of Matee Ajavon and Essence Carson.

“No one expected us to be here,” said Stringer, whose team upset top-seeded Connecticut in the Big East Conference tournament and top-seeded Duke in the NCAA tournament round of 16, “but the long story short is that ... these players believed in themselves and as a result I thought that we executed extremely well, focused on the defensive side of it and didn’t really read any of the hype.”

Ajavon made all four of her three-point shots and scored 14 of her 16 points in the first half. Carson made three of four from long range and scored all 15 of her points before halftime and the Scarlet Knights jumped out to a 21-point lead.

Equally impressive, Rutgers double-teamed Sylvia Fowles, LSU’s 6-foot-6 All-American center, into irrelevancy. Fowles, who was averaging 17.2 points, missed eight of 10 shots and scored only five points, matching her season low. She had four turnovers and seven rebounds, five below her average.

“Not taking anything from Rutgers’ defense, but I don’t feel they had to do much,” Fowles said. “I just think I had a sluggish game from the get-go and couldn’t get in rhythm and couldn’t do anything to help my team out from the jump.”

LSU, which bucked the odds by reaching its fourth consecutive Final Four despite the March 7 resignation of Coach Pokey Chatman amid charges of improper conduct involving a former player, made only 26.4% of its shots and lost in the semifinals for the fourth year in a row. The Tigers (30-8) set records for fewest points, fewest field goals made and lowest field-goal percentage in a Final Four game.

“It was a very emotional locker room,” interim Coach Bob Starkey said. “Every kid was crying. We have lost three previous Final Four [semifinals], and I never saw a tear in there. This team really cared about each other.”

Erica White led the Tigers with nine points on four-for-10 shooting. LSU’s other four starters combined to make six of 31 shots.

jerome.crowe@latimes.com