Leaky roof forces postponement of Sun-Mystics game

Connecticut returns home Sunday to face Indiana

Washington — The Connecticut Sun and Washington Mystics got together to play a basketball game Friday night and were rained out.

Heavy rains in the Washington D.C. area resulted in a leak in the Verizon Center roof and made conditions too dangerous to play. The game will be made up at a later date to be announced.

“Safety of the players is the most important thing as both teams have had enough injuries this year,” Washington coach Mike Thibault said. “There wasn't anybody that felt comfortable that it was going be fixed enough to allow players to play with freedom.”

The WNBA game was called about 50 minutes after the scheduled 7 p.m. start time.

The leak was first noticed about 20 minutes before the game was supposed to tip.

It was opposite the scorer's table a little bit off center court.

Both teams went back to the locker room and then came out again to warm up as the floor was being wiped down. Unfortunately the water kept coming down.

“There's a lot of things that have happened throughout my career (but not this),” Sun head coach Curt Miller. “It's disappointing because there was great excitement in the building. You could really feel it setting up to be a really, really good game.

“I'm really disappointed for our two teams and the league for that matter, but I do give them credit that they put the players safety first and made the difficult decision.”

The Mystics and Sun entered the game tied for first in the WNBA's Eastern Conference at 13-9 and third in the overall standings. The top eight teams qualify for the playoffs, regardless of conference.

“Since the All-Star break (last week), every team has played almost the same kind of schedule (playing on the same days),” Miller said. “The hard part moving forward now is that someone is going to be put in a tough situation with the schedule. We had both played on Tuesday. We both had the same amount of time to prepare for a very important game.

“In order to squeeze the (makeup) game into the schedule, someone is going to be put at a disadvantage. There's no perfect scenario. Either we'll be forced to play at a time we don't want, or something that is more accommodating for us might put Washington at more of a disadvantage. Overall, it's just disappointing given the magnitude of the game here.”

Connecticut will fly home early Saturday and welcome the Indiana Fever on Sunday at Mohegan Sun Arena (3 p.m.).

Washington has a road game Sunday at the Atlanta Dream.