Conference tourney available online
By CHRIS CRADDOCK Special to the News Herald

If you'd like to watch this week's Region XIV Conference men's and women's tournaments from the comfort of your home, and you have internet access, there's good news.

Both RXIV basketball tournaments, to be played at Kilgore College's Masters Gym this weekend, will be available to view live online at www.summitticket.com.

Summit Ticket, out of Dallas, has agreed to video webcast all 12 games of the tournament. The games will be offered to the public on a subscription basis. Viewers will be able to log in and watch the games live and enjoy the archives for six weeks (including this past fall's KC football games). Viewers also have the option of purchasing a one-year "season ticket" for all events archived on the web site.

Other tournaments that will be carried by Summit Ticket this season include the American Southwest Conference men's tournament, the Heartland Conference men's and women's tournaments and the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference men's and women's tournaments.

The top eight and top six women's NJCAA Region XIV teams will make the tournament. The Kilgore College teams, though, fell short of qualifying this year. Junior colleges in Region XIV include Angelina, Blinn, Jacksonville, Kilgore, Lee, Lon Morris, Navarro, Panola, Paris, San Jacinto, Trinity Valley and Tyler.

This will be the last year for this tournament format - the conference is adding new schools next year, and the format will likely change. The conference tournaments rotate to different campuses each year.

For more information, contact Manny Almanza, KC's Coordinator of Marketing Operations and Outreach, at (903) 983-8623 or at (903) 746-3524. You can contact Almanza via e-mail at malmanza@kilgore.edu.

The Summit Ticket contact is Dennis Jacobs at (241) 363-9595. Also, a tournament Web site can be viewed at: kilgore.edu/xivtournament.asp, which includes full schedules for the weekend. Kilgore News Herald sports editor Mitch Lucas contributed to this story.