By Chuck Schoffner
The Associated Press

Atlanta will have to find room for two 800-game winners. Tennessee's Pat Summitt is headed back to the women's Final Four and Jody Conradt of Texas will join her after a 16-year absence. Defending champion Connecticut and Duke also made it in a field of favorites.

Heather Schreiber had 32 points and eight rebounds as second-seeded Texas beat top-seeded LSU 78-60 Tuesday night in the West Regional final. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

Connecticut, Duke and Tennessee all were No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament. Texas was a No. 2 seed and got in by knocking off top-seeded LSU 78-60 in the West Regional final Tuesday night.

The national semifinals will be played at the Georgia Dome on Sunday, Connecticut (35-1) meeting Texas (29-5) and Tennessee (32-4) going against Duke (35-1), which beat the Lady Vols 76-55 back on Nov. 24.

Summitt, who has guided her teams to six NCAA titles, will make her 14th Final Four appearance with 820 victories, more than any Division I coach. Conradt, who has Texas in the Final Four for the first time since 1987, isn't far behind with 817 wins.

Connecticut is in for the fourth straight year and will try for its third title since 2000. Duke is making its third appearance in five years.

Texas will take a 17-game winning streak and an outstanding low-post duo to Atlanta. Heather Schreiber scored a career-high 32 points in the victory over LSU, while Stacy Stephens added 14 points and 12 rebounds.

The Longhorns were one of the nation's most prominent programs through the 1980s. They slipped a little in the 1990s, then became a force again after Conradt gave up the athletic director's job for the women's department in 2001 and concentrated solely on coaching.

Texas won the Big 12 regular-season and tournament championship and hasn't lost since a 71-69 setback at Kansas State on Jan. 25.

Tennessee lost badly to LSU in the finals of the Southeastern Conference tournament, but the Lady Vols had nearly two weeks to get ready for the NCAA tournament and Summitt is at her best when she has that much time to prepare.

Playing its first four tournament games at home, Tennessee won by an average margin of 33.5 points. The Lady Vols advanced as the Mideast Regional champion with a 73-49 victory over Villanova, coached by Summitt's new best friend, Harry Perretta.

Senior Kara Lawson has been playing with more determination than at any time in her Lady Vols career. She and another senior, Gwen Jackson, are the top two scorers, but many others have had big games this season because Summitt will rotate nine or 10 players, sometimes in the first half.

Connecticut, which won the East Regional with a 73-64 victory over Purdue on Tuesday night, made it back to the Final Four in what for any other school would be a rebuilding season. The Huskies lost four starters from last season's unbeaten championship team and all were taken among the top six picks in the WNBA draft.

That left UConn relying on Diana Taurasi and a group of players who had little or no previous experience, including three freshmen. Taurasi, who plays with a flair that few can match, led and the rest followed.

Connecticut won its first 31 games to run its record winning streak to 70 before stumbling against Villanova in the finals of the Big East tournament, a loss that left the Huskies in shock. But they regrouped in the NCAA tournament and now they're headed for Atlanta, though Purdue gave coach Geno Auriemma's bunch a scare.

UConn needed five free throws by Taurasi and four by Maria Conlon in the final 2:43 to hold off the fast-charging Boilermakers, who whittled a 22-point lead to six.

Duke was ranked No. 1 until losing at home to Connecticut on Feb. 1. The Blue Devils have won 15 straight since and were winning by big margins - until getting to the NCAA tournament.

While Alana Beard has continued to score in the tournament - she averaged 21.5 points in the first four games - her teammates have fallen off.

Duke has not scored more than 66 points in any NCAA tournament game, but fortunately for the Blue Devils, their defense has been sound. They had 12 blocks and 11 steals in beating Texas Tech 57-51 to win the Midwest Regional on Monday night.

Still, the Blue Devils will need more from players such as Iciss Tillis, Michele Matyasovsky and Sheana Mosch to have any success in Atlanta.