Baton Rouge, LA (CSTV U-WIRE) -- The only thing that went right for the No. 16 seeded Jaguars of Southern University in the first half was winning the tip, but after that it was a very aggressive No. 1 seeded Duke squad that ended the Jags season, 96-27, in the first round of the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament at the Ted Constant Convocation Center.

The two-time Southwestern Athletic Conference Player of the Year, Rolanda Monroe of Southern was held to only five points and two rebounds in only 14 minutes of play. Sandy Pugh the Jaguars head coach stated that she was sick before the game but didn't tell the coach that she wasn't feeling well. Pugh said that she noticed how Monroe was a little dehydrated and was struggling on the floor.

"The last time I saw her miss consecutive free throws was at the end of the SWAC Tournament when she was completely exhausted. With Rolanda's situation it didn't bold well for us," said Pugh who has a 115-60 career record at Southern. "The other kids needed to step up to the table but they didn't. I salute Tiffany (Jones) for her effort but we had some stretches were we didn't play smart at the guard spot."

Southern finishes the season with a 20-11 overall record and won the SWAC regular season and conference tournament titles. Duke raises its record to 27-3 and advances to play Southern California in the second round.

Monroe did not participate in the official NCAA post game press conference and stayed in the restroom area when the locker room was opened up to the media. She was gingerly holding her stomach as she was walking back to the team bus after the game.

Duke was lead by All-American forward and Washington DC native Monique Currie with 19 points and eight rebounds while Lindsey Harding added 18 points and three assists. Mistie Williams and Wasisha Smith added 10 each. All 11 Duke players scored in the game and played more than 10 minutes each. Starting center Alison Bales, a 6-foot-7 junior added eight points and seven rebounds.

The 27-point total game output by the Jaguars was the lowest number of points scored in NCAA Tournament history. With only 11 points scored after halftime, tied the record for the second fewest points scored in the second half in a NCAA Tournament first or second round game.

"We normally see soft traps but when you see two 6-foot-2 girls coming, its hard for a small guard like me to see over," said (Tiffany) Jones. "It took me a while to adjust. I grew up with Monique (Currie) and wasn't shocked...like coach (Pugh) said we have a young team and they didn't know that the game was going to be so aggressive. They really wasn't ready for it."

The 69-point Duke win was the fifth largest margin of victory in NCAA Tournament history. The Duke 60 rebounds to Southern's 28 was the highest number of rebounds in NCAA Tournament history and the 32 rebound margin is the second highest in NCAA history behind 35 by Tennessee (57) vs. Virginia (22) on March 23, 1989.

"The season didn't definitely end the way I had hoped, but it very rarely never does," said Pugh who has sent her third Jaguar team to the NCAA's in six years. "All year long the kids battled, battled, battled . . . we had our ups and downs this season."

Duke, who has been a No. 1 seed five times in the last six years, jumped out to a 40-16 halftime lead by holding Southern to just seven of 29 (.241) from the field and forcing 14 turnovers that lead to 20 Duke points. Duke also out rebounded the Jaguars in the first half 32 to 18 leading to 12 second chance points.

Shiggs lead the Jaguars at the half with five points and (Tiffany) Jones scored four. Currie led Duke with nine points at the half while Harding added seven.

Pugh also stated that it was the size of Duke's team that defensively caused problems for her team and that it caused them to be out of sync all game.

The Jaguars finished the game shooting 11 of 60 (.183) from the field. Duke scored 44 points in the paint and 38 points from the 26 Jaguar turnovers and blocked 10 Jaguar shots, three by 6-foot-5 Shante Black and two by the 6-foot-3 Williams.

"They (Southern) have two excellent players...we were keying on them," said Duke coach Gail Goestenkors, when referring to SU's Monroe and Lewis. "We wanted to make it difficult to feed the post. We did an overall pretty good job at that. We haven't blown a team out in a while and I think it was good for our confidence."

Pugh looking at the future for her Jaguars to be the SWAC team to win its first NCAA Tournament game stated that they must first do a better job in winning the preseason (non-SWAC) schedule to not get a No. 16 seed and continue to bring in better players to Southern.

"They (Duke) are top of the line and at some point in each of their players career they were some type of All-American in high school," said Pugh. "I knew in Duke that we had the beast by the tail."

Monroe, the all-time career-scoring leader in Southern history, ended her glistening four-year stint as a Jaguar, with 1,972 points and the leader for the most 3-pointers in a career with 207. She also finished ranked No. 4 on the career assist list and No. 2 in steals.

The outlook for Southern next season is that the Jaguars return the strength of its post play with current sophomores led by Lewis, a 6-foot-4 center along with power forwards Krystal Huggins and 6-foot-2, Indi Johnson. The team will also look at Ashton Jones, a freshman center who at 6-foot-3 has played in 27 of the Jaguars 31 games this season.

" We have to hold our head up and salute this season...I now have to go out and get me some guards who can shoot the mid-range jumper and address our teams effort day in and day out," said Pugh. "Aside from a couple of seniors this team is very young and I look forward to working with them for next season."

NOTES

SU NCAA HISTORY: This was the third time that Southern has earned a berth into the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament, all under head coach Sandy Pugh. The Jaguars were defeated by Colorado, 88-61, in the 2002-03 season and lost to Texas, 92-57, in the 2003-04 season.

JUKEBOX READY: The Southern University pep-band began playing 33 minutes before the game started and received a rousing applause after each song by the Ted Constant Convocation Center crowd trading songs with the Duke pep-band who stood watching and listening to the SU band, who started with "Head Busta." The band was also introduced and played the National Anthem at the start of the game. Sitting next the band after halftime the Jukebox received applause from the USC (Southern California) Trojan pep band, which was to play in the USC/South Florida following the Southern/Duke game.

HALFTIME HORROR: In the Jaguars three NCAA appearances the team has been behind at the half by 20 to Colorado (41-21) on March 15, 2003, by 33 to Texas (55-22) on March 21, 2004 and by 24 to Duke (40-16) on March 18, 2006.

HOME STATE RECRUITING: The Jaguars listed seven players from the state of Louisiana and none from North Carolina. The SU roster contains three from Texas (Lewis, Deshundra Antoine and Terricka McLemore), one from Alabama (Ashton Jones) and one from Los Angeles (Johnson). Duke only has one player on is its roster listed from the state of North Carolina that is 6-foot-5, sophomore center Chante Black from Winston-Salem and none from Louisiana.

(C) 2006 Southern Digest via CSTV U-WIRE