LSU women’s basketball opens play in the SEC tournament quarterfinals tonight at 6 pm, attempting to earn their first championship since 2003. The Tigers will face the Kentucky Wildcats, who extended their winning streak to six games with yesterday’s win over Mississippi State. Kentucky is led by two-time All-American Rhyne Howard, who averaged 20 points per game and earned First Team All-SEC honors this season for the fourth time. Kim Mulkey shares her thoughts on the resurgent Wildcats…

Cut 19 (19) “…good now.”

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In the opening round of the men’s Sun Belt Conference tournament Thursday, the U-L Ragin Cajuns topped Texas-Arlington, 67-64 but UL-Monroe fell to Arkansas State, 77-82. The Cajuns will face top-seeded Texas State Saturday at 11:30 am.

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The third-ranked LSU baseball team gets its first big test of the young season this weekend as they face Oklahoma, top-ranked Texas, and Baylor in the Shriners College Classic in Houston. LSU has won five in a row and is 8-and-1 on the season. Kendall Rogers, of D-1 baseball-dot-com, says the Tigers will have a chance to show that they really are a top ten team…

Cut 17 (19) “…the season”

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Also on the diamond, Southern starts a 3-game set at Texas-San Antonio, Nicholls is at Memphis, Louisiana Tech visits McNeese, UNO hosts UL-M, and Tulane welcomes Ole Miss.

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The Major League Baseball Players Association has announced the launch of a $1 million fund to help support workers impacted by the lockout and the cancellation of games by MLB owners. The AFL-CIO will help in determining the greatest areas of need and in distributing funds.

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