No. 3 seed LSU Tigers face the No. 2 seed Texas Longhorns

The No. 3 seed LSU Tigers face the No. 2 seed Texas Longhorns on Saturday, March 8, 2025 (3/8/25) in the semifinals of the SEC women’s basketball tournament

The No. 3 seed LSU Tigers will take on the No. 2 seed Texas Longhorns in the semifinals of the SEC women’s basketball tournament on Saturday, March 8, 2025 (3/8/25). The game will take place at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, S.C., and tips off at 7 p.m. ET.

Fans can watch the game for free via a trial of DirecTV Stream or fuboTV.

You can also watch via a subscription to Sling TV, which is offering half off your first month plus a free month of AMC+.

Here’s what you need to know:

What: SEC women’s basketball tournament

Who: LSU vs. Texas

When: March 8, 2025 (3/8/25)

Where: Bon Secours Wellness Arena

Time: 7 p.m. ET

TV: ESPN2

Live stream: DirecTV Stream (free trial), fuboTV (free trial)

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Here’s a women’s college basketball story via the Associated Press:

GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — Dawn Staley has won eight Southeastern Conference Tournaments since taking over as head coach at South Carolina in 2008.

She sees winning a ninth as the biggest challenge yet.

To say the SEC is loaded is an understatement. The conference boasts five teams in the top 12 of the most recent AP poll, including No. 1 Texas, No. 5 South Carolina, No. 9 LSU, No. 10 Oklahoma and No. 12 Kentucky. In all, seven teams are ranked in the Top 25, and that doesn’t include 17-time tournament champion Tennessee.

The SEC is so competitive that the Sooners, despite their top 10 ranking, finished fifth in the conference and didn’t even receive a double bye in the tournament.

“By far, the toughest. ... the toughest,” Staley said of this year’s level of competition in the SEC tournament compared to previous seasons.

South Carolina (27-3) will be the No. 1 seed for the fourth straight season after winning a coin flip on Sunday with Texas.

Both teams finished 15-1 in conference play and split the season series with South Carolina winning 67-50 on Jan. 12 in Columbia and the Longhorns responding with a 66-62 victory in Austin on Feb. 9. A highly-anticipated rubber match could come Sunday in Greenville — if both teams are able to make it through the gauntlet that awaits.

The Gamecocks have plenty of big-game experience. They’ve won four of the last five SEC tournament titles and two of the last three national championships. But Staley said all of that “goes down the drain” this year given the addition of Texas and Oklahoma to the conference.

“We have two teams that we didn’t have to deal with last year and that is Texas and Oklahoma, and that will have an impact on the outcome. They had an impact in the regular season and now (will have an impact on) the tournament.”

Booker leads No. 1 Texas

Texas (29-2) enters the tournament on a 13-game winning streak and ranked first in the country for the first time in 21 years, a testament to the job head coach Vic Schaefer has done in Austin.

It helps the Longhorns have one of the best players in the country in Madison Booker, who is averaging 16 points, 6.5 points and 1.6 steals per game. With Booker leading the way, Schaefer believes the Longhorns are capable of winning out.

“We have a three-game tournament and a six-game tournament in front of us and the gauntlet that this group’s been through, there’s not going to be anything that they haven’t seen,” Schaefer said.

LSU without Johnson

Although the Longhorns were disappointed they didn’t win the coin flip, they take can take heart knowing that being the No. 2 seed might actually give them an easier path to Sunday’s championship game.

That’s because No. 3 seed LSU (27-4), a potential opponent in the semifinals, will be without star Flau’jae Johnson, who’ll miss the conference tournament with a shin injury. Tigers coach Kim Mulkey said she wants Johnson to get rested for the NCAA Tournament.

The Tigers lost 85-77 to unranked Mississippi in the season finale without Johnson.

“I don’t feel like anything we do in the conference tournament, even if we lost both games, will affect us hosting here” in the NCAA Tournament, Mulkey said. “We have a great body of work and