Official Site of the Final Four
NCAA Championhip: Round One
Mid Eest Region: Friday, March 16
No. 13 Louisville 52 No. 4 Xavier 80
Cincinnati, OH	Box Score TotalCast Stats
Midwest Region: Friday, March 16
No. 10 Tulane 70 No. 7 Florida State 72
Ames, IA	Box Score TotalCast Stats

Tulane's Britt Themann, right, stumbles as she drives past Florida State's April Traylor during the first half of this first-round NCAA Midwest regional game Friday, March 16, 2001, in Ames, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

CHUCK SCHOFFNER
AP Sports Writer

AMES, Iowa (AP) - April Traylor scored a career-high 30 points and Florida State survived a late rush by Tulane to beat the Green Wave 72-70 Friday night in the Midwest Regional.

Florida State (19-11), in the tournament for the first time since 1991, rallied from an 11-point deficit in the first half and then held on after leading 70-62 with a little more than two minutes left.

Tulane (22-10), the Conference USA champion, drew to 72-70 when Gwen Slaughter scored with 47 seconds left, and the Green Wave got the ball back after Florida State's Brooke Wyckoff missed a 3-point attempt as the shot clock was running down.

Following a timeout with 12.5 seconds remaining, Tulane got the ball where it wanted - into center Janell Burse's hands in the lane. But Burse missed an 8-foot turnaround shot in traffic with two seconds remaining and Florida State ran the ball down as time ran out.

Traylor, whose previous best was 29 points against Florida in 1999, made 11 of 17 shots and was 5-for-7 on 3-pointers. She twice hit a 3 after Florida State pulled to within three points down the stretch.

Seventh-seeded Florida State survived an off night by Wyckoff, the team's leading scorer with a 15.2 average. She scored only five points on 2-for-10 shooting.

Katelyn Vujas had 14 points, nine rebounds and six assists for Florida State.

Burse had 22 points and six rebounds to lead 10th-seeded Tulane, which made the tournament for the seventh straight year and lost in the first round for the fifth time. Florida State was able to get back in it after Burse went to the bench with her second foul with 11:52 left in the first half.

Sarah Goree scored 17 points for Tulane, and Slaughter had 11.

Xavier's Amy Waugh, right, drives past Louisville's Janelle Antoine in the first half of a first-round game at the women's NCAA Mideast Regional at Xavier University's Cintas Center in Cincinnati, Friday, March 16, 2001. (AP Photo/Tom Uhlman)

TERRY KINNEY
Associated Press Writer

CINCINNATI (AP) - Nicole Levandusky and Reetta Piipari started a 24-2 run with a pair of 3-pointers as Xavier took control early and ran away from Louisville 80-52 on Friday night in the first round of the Mideast Regional.

Fourth-seeded Xavier (29-2), which has a 19-game winning streak, will play Clemson, a 51-49 winner over Tennessee-Chattanooga, in Sunday's second round.

Louisville (19-10) led 5-0 until Levanduskey's 3-pointer at 18:13, the first of three 3-pointers by Levandusky during the run.

Xavier stayed perfect at the Cintas Center. Xavier has won all 14 of its games in the new campus arena, which opened this season.

Xavier led 43-24 at halftime behind nearly perfect shooting by Jennifer Phillips, who scored 16 of her 20 points in the first half, when she was 3-of-3 from the field and 10-of-11 at the line.

Levandusky finished with 18 points, 11 in the first half, and Amy Waugh had 11 for Xavier.

Sara Nord scored 22 for Louisville, and Carol Brown had 12.

Xavier and Louisville had met only once before, when Louisville beat Xavier 69-29 in 1976.