CHANGE OF PLANS
Coronavirus caution forces postponement of state regional games
KINGSTON, N.Y. » Local basketball teams felt the impact of the coronavirus outbreak Tuesday as state regional semifinal games at SUNY New Paltz and Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh were postponed.
Newburgh Free Academy’s boys were to play Horace Greeley and the Monroe-Woodbury girls to play Ursuline in a Class AA doubleheader at New Paltz Tueday. Millbrook and Haldane’s girls were to square off and the Pine Plains boys were to take on Alexander Hamilton of Section 1 in a Class C twinbill at Mount Saint Mary.
The two colleges made the decision out of an abundance of caution.
Host sites across the state made similar decisions. Discussions are ongoing about dates and locations of rescheduled contests.
Mount Saint Mary was to host a Class B doubleheader Wednesday featuring both Marlboro teams: the boys were to play Hastings at 5, followed by the girls against Putnam Valley at 7.
Originally, the Pine Plains boys were scheduled to play Tuesday and the Marlboro girls Wednesday, both at Horace Greeley High in Westchester County, an area heavily impacted by the virus. Greeley chose not to host the games, forcing the move northward.
Wednesday’s Class A regional boys game between New Paltz and Johnson City at Vestal High, located west of Binghamton, is still scheduled to be played.
Keeping the games at Mount Saint Mary became problematic Tuesday with the college announcing it was cancelling classes on Wednesday and going to online classes as of Thursday, March 12, with a tentative plan to resume classes on March 30.
New York state has yet to reach the level of Ohio, which declared Tuesday that all scholastic, collegiate and professional sports will be held without spectators.
The New York State Public High School Athletic Association announced Tuesday that there are no changes for the state basketball tournaments from March 20-22 at Glens Falls and Troy.