JOURNAL SPORTS
For the 21st consecutive season, the LSUS men’s basketball program has earned an invitation to the NAIA Tournament, but the Pilots will visit the only program that has a more impressive streak.
LSUS (18-11) is the 15th seed in its quadrant and will play at No. 2 Georgetown (Ky.), which is making its 34th straight appearance in the NAIA postseason. Georgetown is 26-4. The other two teams in the Georgetown Regional are No. 7 Lewis-Clark (Idaho) and 10th-seeded Saint Francis (Indiana).
The Pilots’ first-round upset bid will tip at 5 p.m. CT on Friday, March 14. LSUS was considered a bubble team in the pool of contenders for one of the at-large slots in the 64-team field.
In the women’s bracket, the two-time Red River Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament champion Pilots (27-3) hold a No. 25 national ranking, and are the fifth seed in their tournament quadrant. They will travel to Hastings, Neb., and will have to get past the quadrant’s fourth-seeded team, Hastings, in a potential second-round contest to reach the Sweet 16 in Kansas City.
In the first-round contest, LSUS drew 12th-seeded Huntington (Indiana), which holds a 17-12 record. Hastings matches up with No. 13 College of the Ozarks (Missouri) in the other opening game. Tip times were not set when the bracket was unveiled Thursday evening.
The LSUS women went 23-1 in the RRAC regular season, then swept three conference tournament games.