Sports digest 4/18/02

Southeast tennis squad

to compete in OVC meet

Southeast Missouri State University's women's tennis team will begin Ohio Valley Conference Tournament play at 4 p.m. Friday, facing top-seeded Tennessee Tech in Nashville, Tenn.

The Otahkians, the No. 8 seed in the eight-team event, went 2-14 overall and 1-5 in OVC play this season. Tech, 13-7 overall, was 7-0 in the OVC.

Following Friday's match, Southeast will play again Saturday, either in the winner's bracket or loser's bracket.

Other squads in the tournament are No. 2 Tennessee-Martin, No. 3 Murray State, No. 4 Eastern Illinois, No. 5 Morehead State, No. 6 Eastern Kentucky and No. 7 Austin Peay.

Chip-A-Ways open

league play

Lillian Angle and Sharon Dow tied for first in 'A' flight as the Chip-A-Ways opened league play Tuesday at Cape Jaycees Municipal Golf Course.

Fern Trickey won 'B' flight while Deanna Peterman won Play of the Day. Linda Williams posted the low-putt total.

Elsewhere

Baseball

John Rocker got demoted to the minor leagues because of his poor pitching, not for anything he said.

Texas optioned Rocker to Triple-A Oklahoma early Wednesday, after he blew a save opportunity by giving up two runs in the 10th inning of the Rangers' 6-5 loss at Anaheim the night before.

Through six games, Rocker was 0-1 with one save, two blown saves and a 9.53 ERA.

Basketball

The way they played on the final night of the season, it's fair to say the Milwaukee Bucks didn't deserve to make the playoffs.

The Bucks, who came within one game of going to the NBA Finals last season and were expected to go deep into the postseason, barely put up a fight against Detroit despite being in position to control their own playoff fate.

Milwaukee's 123-89 loss, combined with Toronto's 103-85 victory over Cleveland and Indiana's 103-80 win over Philadelphia, meant that the Eastern Conference's final two postseason spots went to the Raptors and Pacers.

-- From staff, wire reports