STANFORD, CALIF. — How quickly Jamie Carey felt at home again in Maples Pavilion -- even in a Texas uniform. The Stanford fans still cheered her name, and they still wore her number.
And her shots went in, just like they used to.
Carey scored 18 points on the same court where she thrived as a freshman before transferring to Texas, leading the Longhorns into the West Regional finals with a 73-60 victory Sunday night over Minnesota.
"It doesn't matter what the weather is outside, it's always hot in Maples, and that's something I'd forgotten," Carey said after an unusually warm spring day in the Bay area.
"It was pretty amazing. I typically don't get nervous before a game, but I had chills. I got goosebumps running out there in the introduction. I've had a lot of Stanford people call me. The coaches called me. Everybody came out and supported me."
They surely will again Tuesday, too.
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) 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 their tournaments.
The Longhorns also received 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 a shocking victory over Stanford last week but couldn't overcome a poor performance on offense Sunday.
"It's frustrating to get this far and have it come down to this," said Corrin Von Wald, who added 14 points and five rebounds for the Golden Gophers. "I just don't think we had the fight that we had against Stanford."
The Longhorns' defense held Minnesota leading scorer Lindsay Whalen to 13 points, eight below her average.
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