STANFORD, Calif. – Texas’ Jamie Carey scored 18 points on the same court where she starred as a freshman for Stanford, leading the Longhorns into the West Regional finals with a 73-60 victory over Minnesota on Sunday night.

Second-seeded Texas won its 16th straight game to advance to the regional final for the sixth time under coach Jody Conradt, who took the Longhorns (28-5) to back-to-back Final Fours in 1986 and ’87.

They will play top-seeded Louisiana State (30-3) on Tuesday night. The Tigers, who beat Texas 76-58 earlier this season, came from behind to beat Louisiana Tech 69-63 earlier Sunday.

Texas is the only school with both its men’s and women’s teams still in the NCAA tournament.

The Longhorns also got 14 points and 12 rebounds from Heather Schreiber.

Kim Prince had 15 points for No. 6 seed Minnesota (25-6), which reached the round of 16 for the first time in school history with an upset victory over Stanford last week but couldn’t overcome a poor performance on offense Sunday.

The Longhorns’ defense held Minnesota leading scorer Lindsay Whalen to 13 points, eight below her average, on 4-for-13 shooting and she also committed six of her team’s 14 turnovers. Bulky 6-foot-2 sophomore center Janel McCarville added 10 points and 12 rebounds, but was not the dominant inside presence she had often been this season.

The Maples Pavilion fans who would have preferred to have the hometown Cardinal still playing in the tournament had the next best thing in Carey.

Carey, who declared as far back as seventh grade she wanted to go to Stanford, made a school-record 81 3-pointers as a Cardinal freshman but transferred to Texas when school doctors ruled her ineligible after a series of concussions.

The Longhorns cleared her and the guard from Thornton, Colo., left Stanford.

One fan held a red sign reading “Maples Belongs to Jamie,” while several others wore her red No. 11 Stanford uniform. She received a standing ovation when she was introduced.

Carey took the ball hard to the basket and aggressively jumped out into the passing lane for one of her two steals when the game was tight in the second half.

The Gophers never got in sync on offense and were held without a field goal for 61/2 minutes in the second half. They shot 38 percent.

Nina Norman’s 3-pointer with 10:32 left gave Texas a 49-42 lead, and the Longhorns answered with clutch baskets – several on second-chance opportunities – whenever Minnesota made shots to keep the game close.

Kala Bowers converted two free throws with 6:01 left for a 61-52 lead to help the Longhorns pull away.

In the first half, Minnesota routinely forced things on offense with the shot clock winding down, missing many shots from close range.

The teams played for the first time since two meetings in 1978.

Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer and her staff were in the stands for the game, but certainly didn’t expect to be watching the action at their own regional.

AP-ES-03-30-03 2336EST