Tuesday, January 31, 2017 1BTHE TOWN TALK

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The St. Louis Cardinals’long-awaited punish-ment Monday for their

computer hacking scandalcan’t possibly be judged byits monetary value, or eventhe loss of valuable draftpicks.

Their $2 million fine won’teven buy you a utility infield-er these days.

And the Cardinals’ forfei-ture of their top two picks inthe upcoming June draftwere only the 56th and 75thpicks, already sacrificingtheir first-round pick withthe signing free-agent centerfielder Dexter Fowler. Thetwo picks, more important,will cost them $1.853 millionin slot money they can nolonger spend in the draft.

It all now goes to the Hous-ton Astros, victims of the 2-year computer espionage bythe Cardinals’ former scout-ing director, Chris Correa.

No matter, the Cardinals,who now won’t have a draftpick until the 94th selection,and be limited to just $2.072million in slot money, willsurvive.

And still thrive.Their stadium will be

packed again most everynight with a sea of red, andthey’ll be in the playoff huntall year round like they are

COMMENTARY

AP

Former St. Louis Cardinalsscouting director ChristopherCorrea, left, was banned for lifeby baseball commissioner RobManfred on Monday. Manfredalso stripped the Cardinals of the56th and 75th draft choices inJune.

For Cardinals,stain stingsmore thanpunishment

See HACK, Page 3B

Correa hackedHouston databaseat least 48 timesover 2-year spanBOB NIGHTENGALEUSA TODAY SPORTS

With twoweeksto go in

the regular sea-son, the districtraces are not theonly things thatare clearing up.

The top half of the Top Ten

remains unchanged, but lossesto some of the squads on thebottom half of the list haveopened opportunities for someof the teams in the area.

So without further ado...1. Winnfield (23-2, LW: 1):

The Tigerettes had two oftheir tougher weeks in districtplay and managed to extendtheir winning streak to 16games after defeating Marks-ville and Jena to go to 10-0 in3-3A. Last week, junior TiliahDavis pulled down an aston-ishing 17.5 rebounds per gameand swatted seven shotsagainst the Lady Tigers, but

junior point guard Tyra Tri-plett had the hot hand on of-fense with 16.0 points pergame and shooting 12-for-23from the floor. Winnfield canclinch back-to-back districttitles with a win Tuesdayagainst Avoyelles.

2. Fairview (34-2, LW: 2):The Panthers were on the roadthis week but managed todefeat Plainview and Pitkin tohold on to the No. 2 spot in theTop Ten. Fairview's high-oc-tane offense travels to Hicksbefore returning home to hostHornbeck Friday.

3. Natchitoches Central

(18-8, LW: 3): The Lady Chiefsremain at No. 3 on this list asthey went 1-1 this week, thanksto suffering another close lossat the hands of Ouachita — topossibly make their chancesof repeating as 2-5A champsslim. However, against Pine-ville last Tuesday, junior JolieWilliams was back in a grooveas she drilled five 3-pointersen route to a 26-point night.

4. Rapides (23-5, LW: 4): TheLady Mustangs got everythingfrom what it could handleagainst Many, but they pre-

PREP GIRLS BASKETBALL

Atlanta returns to girls Top TenJumped to 9 spot;currently on 6-gamewinning streak

LAMARGAFFORD

See GAFFORD, Page 2B

NEW ORLEANS– The NewOrleans Pel-icans just

completed their long-est homestand of theseason.

Fitting for thisfranchise, the Pel-icans went 3-3.

But it was how they went 3-3that makes them the NBA’s mostschizophrenic team.

With Anthony Davis playing, theylost by 29 points to the league’sworst team, the 9-win BrooklynNets.

With Anthony Davis not playing,they beat the defending NBA cham-pion Cleveland Cavaliers, 124-122,leading wire-to-wire. And the Cavs’big 3 – Lebron James, Kyrie Irvingand Kevin Love – played 124 out of144 minutes and combined to score97 points, led by Irving’s 49.

Next game, the Pelicans weren’tcompetitive in falling to OklahomaCity. Then Friday night, New Or-leans beat San Antonio, owners ofthe second-best record in the NBA,119-103.

It was only fitting the Pelicansencompassed both of their personal-ities in closing the homestand witha 107-94 loss to the surging Wash-ington Wizards Sunday afternoon.

First possession for the Pelicanswas a turnover when rookie BuddyHield threw the ball to no one,leading to an easy John Wall layup.

Second possession for the Pel-

icans was a bricked 3-pointer byHield.

It only got worse from there asWashington raced out to a 9-0 leadand eventually to a 57-40 halftimelead.

“I don’t think we came out andtried not to play hard, we just …When you’re giving up anythingthey want – dunks, lay-ups, wide-opens shots, and then we come outand aren’t executing offensively – itkind of just drains you mentally,”said Davis.

Yet, the “good” Pelicans showedup in the third quarter, outscoringthe Wizards 33-17. An 18-foot Davisjumper actually gave New Orleansa 73-72 lead with 51 seconds left inthe quarter.

The Wizards regained control inthe fourth quarter, leading 102-88with 3:05 left.

The game exposed what mosthave long suspected about the Pel-icans – they simply don’t haveenough talent.

Davis and Jrue Holiday are theonly players on the roster whocould start for any other team inthe NBA. In fact, they may be theonly players on the roster whowould even make another NBAteam’s playing rotation.

Washington’s starting lineup ofWall, Bradley Beal, Markieff Mor-ris, Otto Porter Jr. and Marcin Gor-tat all scored in double figures,combining for 96 points, led byBeal’s 27 points and Wall’s 18 pointsand 19 assists.

COMMENTARY: NEW ORLEANS PELICANS

DERICK E. HINGLE-USA TODAY SPORTS

New Orleans Pelicans forward Anthony Davis (23) holds his right leg as he leaves in the second quarter against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Indicative ofhow the homestand went, the Pelicans lost with Davis playing to the NBA’s worst team, the Brooklyn Nets, but beat the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Homestand showcases best, worstof New Orleans Pelicans’ abilities

See PELICANS, Page 3B

JOHN MARCASE

Pelicans: Good or Bad?

PELICANSHOMESTANDRECORD: 3-3

vs. Magic118-98 (W)

vs. Nets114-143 (L)

vs. Cavs124-122 (W)

vs. Thunder105-114 (L)

vs. Spurs119-103 (W)

vs. Wizards94-107 (L)

Football recruits nation-wide can sign a National Let-ter of Intent on Wednesday,but what does the documentsay? Here are 10 things toknow.

1. It is not mandatory thata prospect sign a letter ofintent

By signing a players agreesto attend the school listed for

one academic year,and the schoolagrees to awardhim athletic finan-cial aid for one aca-demic year. A play-er can sign a finan-cial aid agreementand get basicallythe same assur-ance of a scholar-

ship as he would with the let-ter of intent, but the playerdoes not have to forfeit hisability to go elsewhere with-out being released by theschool. For the letter of intentto be valid, it must be signed

SIGNING DAY

10 things toknow about theletter of intentThere’s more to itthan penning one’sname on the lineJOSH BARNETTUSA TODAY SPORTS

See LETTER, Page 3B

NationalSigningDay

When:Wednes-day, Feb. 1,2017