Homegrown Augustus has built LSU into a power

	Seimone Augustus hopes the third time is the charm as she leads LSU to the Final Four in Boston on Sunday. David Bergman/SI
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SAN ANTONIO -- Seimone Augustus has piled up enough accolades during her career at LSU to stock a trophy cabinet.

There's the Naismith Award. The Wooden Award. The Wade Trophy. There are Kodak All-America honors and even gold medals. But there is one trophy Augustus has yet to earn -- the one she wants the most.

The national championship trophy.

Augustus wants that as much for LSU as she does for herself.

"Seimone is the ultimate team player," LSU coach Pokey Chatman said. "She wants that team to be successful. That's why a championship would mean so much more to her. It's something she could share with her teammates. Individual accolades are great, but she is truly someone who loves her teammates, and anything she can share with them at the highest level of this sport is something she cherishes."

Augustus will have one more chance to get that title. On Monday she scored 26 points to lead LSU to a 62-59 win over Stanford in the San Antonio regional final. She added four rebounds and three blocks while earning MVP honors of the regional tournament.

Augustus also came up with a defensive play that sealed the Tigers' trip to Boston, where they'll make their third consecutive Final Four appearance. With her team clinging to a 60-59 lead with 4.8 seconds left, Augustus stepped in front of a driving Candice Wiggins and drew a charge. That forced Stanford to foul the LSU star, who leads the nation in scoring with 23 points a game. Augustus nailed both free throws.

"I think it's ironic that one of the best offensive players in the game made a defensive stop," Chatman said.

But Augustus will do whatever it takes to bring a championship to her hometown team, which saw its previous trips to the Final Four end in disappointment. In 2004, in the program's first-ever Final Four, LSU lost to Tennessee in the final seconds of the national semifinals. Last year the Tigers seemed to have Baylor on the ropes but let a 15-point lead slip away. They went home. Baylor went on to win the title.