SAN ANTONIO ? Courtney Paris was double-covered all the time during Oklahoma’s 19-game winning streak. Triple- and quadruple-teamed, too.

Only Stanford was good enough to make it work.

With Kristen Newlin and a rotation of teammates swarming the bulky freshman, Brooke Smith rose to the challenge of being the best center on the court, making 14 of 16 shots and scoring a career-high 35 to lead the Cardinal past the Sooners, 88-74, Saturday in the semifinals of the San Antonio Regional.

“I cannot think of one post player in the country I’d rather have on my team than Brooke,” Stanford guard Candice Wiggins said. “I’m just really happy that the whole nation could see what we see in practice every day and what a great player she is.”

Paris is, too, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound force who came in already having set more than three dozen records this season. She left with a handful more – most significantly the NCAA’s single-season rebounding mark – but most of her 26 points and 16 rebounds came long after No. 2 seed Oklahoma (31-5) absorbed what coach Sherri Coale called “a sucker punch that knocked us dizzy a little bit.”

The third-seeded Cardinal (26-7) made eight of their first nine shots and led 19-4 before the game was five minutes old.

Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale and the Oklahoma bench watch in disbelief during the final minutes of their loss to Stanford. The Sooners fell, 88-74, Saturday in San Antonio.

Newlin anchored the defense against Paris, getting help from a different teammate practically every possession. Regardless of whether it was the 5-11 Wiggins or the 6-3 Smith, they forced Paris into mistake after mistake.

She had only eight points at halftime with as many turnovers (four) as field goals. Besides errant passes, she traveled and was called for a five-second violation.

“I was double-teamed a lot this season,” Paris said. “It was nothing new. I won’t use that as an excuse.”

LSU 66, DePaul 56

San Antonio – LSU used tight defense to pull away from the Blue Demons. Seimone Augustus finished with 18 points – and a tweaked ankle – and Sylvia Fowles had 13 points and 19 rebounds to help send top-seeded LSU (30-3) into the regional finals for the fourth straight year.