Donna Mcwilliam / AP

LSU guard Seimone Augustus shoots over Stanford's Brooke Smith and forward Kristen Newlin on Monday.

The game ended with LSU’s Scholanda Hoston stealing the ball from Stanford’s Brooke Smith. Hoston was so ready to celebrate that she threw it high with about 3 seconds left. Smith fell to the ground, banging her hands in disgust, and teammate Kristen Newlin wrapped her arms around her head in disbelief.

The Lady Tigers bounced up and down as if they’d won more than a regional final. Augustus gave Chatman a hug that lifted the former point guard off the ground. Then Fowles lifted Chatman even higher.

Although Stanford was ousted in the regional finals for the third straight year — again coming a game shy of its first Final Four since 1997 — this was a great season. The Cardinal were supposed to be in transition from last year’s team that went into the tournament No. 1 and a team that’s expected to be among the preseason favorites next year.

“I think that as a team we’ve come a tremendously long way since November and December,” said Brooke Smith, who had 14 points on 7-of-16 shooting after making 14-of-16 for a career-best 35 in the previous game. “But I don’t think that makes this loss more acceptable or makes it hurt any less.”

Wiggins led Stanford with 23 points, including a 3-pointer with 39 seconds left. The Cardinal made only two field goals in the last 6:30, a drought proved to be the difference — especially with them also missing three free throws in the final minute.

The other schools to have men’s and women’s teams in the Final Four in the same year are Georgia (1983), Duke (1999), Oklahoma (2002), Texas (’03), Connecticut (’04) and Michigan State (’05).

Only Connecticut pulled off the title sweep; in fact, none of the other teams won either the men’s or women’s titles.

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