Impending snow causes postseason changes
All basketball games moved to Thursday
Winter Storm Stella hadn’t even reached Pennsylvania Monday afternoon when the incoming storm sent the state into scramble mode.
With accumulation totals fluctuating almost by the hour and a state of emergency declared for the eastern part of PA, the state basketball tournament and state swimming and diving championships scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday were postponed. The decision has affected the schedule for both events in the second half of the week.
An official PIAA release sent out Monday afternoon announced that the state diving championships would be moved to March 25 and 26 at Bucknell University. Class AA diving will compete on March 25 and Class AAA will take place on March 26.
No swimming events will be held prior to Thursday, March 16. The championship meet will take place at Bucknell with the AA competition taking place Thursday and Friday and AAA competition taking place Saturday and Sunday.
The second round of the PIAA basketball tournament, which was split between Tuesday and Wednesday, has been pushed back and all second round games will now be played on Thursday, March 16.
The quarterfinal round, originally scheduled for Friday and Saturday, has also been condensed and all quarterfinal/third round games will be played on Saturday. This leaves Friday open as a built-in makeup say, should the storm be worse than expected or any areas experience lingering aftereffects.
“The fair thing is everybody has to
deal with it,” Plymouth Whitemarsh girls basketball coach Dan Dougherty said. “It’s not as if certain teams are playing Wednesday and certain teams are playing Thursday night. Everyone has to deal with it. The real challenge is for the teams that win, only getting one day to get ready for the next game and one day to get ready for the state semifinals.
“I’m sure that’s a great problem to have and every team would be excited to face that problem, it’s still tough.”
With different projected snowfall totals across the
state, plus already announced closures on the eastern side of Pennsylvania, there was no other way to keep the tournament on schedule. The state finals are slated to be played March 24-26 at the Giant Center in Hershey and the arena’s usual tenant, the Hershey Bears, have a home game scheduled the next week on Saturday April 1.
The PIAA had originally slated it was going to make a decision on Tuesday’s games by 11am Tuesday morning.
Thursday’s revised basketball schedule will feature a number of tripleheaders due to site availability and matchups. A handful of area teams will be playing at the same sites. North Penn and CB East’s matchup will now be played at 6pm Thursday at Quakertown, followed by Souderton and CB South at 7:30. With nine of 11 District I teams advancing in 6A, it helped consolidate some of those games.
The Plymouth Whitemarsh boys will kick off a tripleheader at Reading’s Santander Arena when the Colonials take on Pocono Mountain West at 5. Cardinal O’Hara’s girls follow against Central York, then the night is capped by Perkiomen Valley against Reading at 8.
The Colonial girls face Council Rock North at Cheltenham in a 7:30 tip, preceded by Faith Christian’s boys against Sankofa Freedom. PW faced CR North in the District I tournament quarterfinals.
Dougherty said at this point of the season, teams aren’t putting in anything new anyway and the biggest test for teams that advance will be dealing with travel and recuperating quickly if they happen to play a physical game. Outside of that, the message was just to be smart and try to do a little bit of prep work.
“Lots of reminders of not going out and doing anything stupid in the snow and use the time, maybe study some film, try to pick up a play here or there that could make the difference in the game,” Dougherty said. “Hopefully we can use this time to get our legs underneath us a little more and be ready to go full-tilt on Thursday night.”
Archbishop Wood’s boys’ and girls’ teams did benefit from the schedule crunch, as they will both be playing at Pottstown High School. The Viking girls play Bishop Shanahan at 6:30 and the boys battle Mecanicsburg at 8. Abington’s girls have an in-district trip to Souderton for a 7:30 start against Northampton.
Revised PIAA second round basketball matchups: BOYS 6A Plymouth Whitemarsh vs Pocono Mountain West, 5pm at Santander Arena, Reading Perkiomen Valley vs Reading, 8pm at Santander Arena, Reading BOYS 5A Archbishop Wood vs Mecanicsburg, 8pm at Pottstown HS Upper Merion vs Northeastern, 7:30pm at Manheim Township HS Archbishop Carroll vs Palmyra, 5pm at Reading HS Geigle Complex BOYS A Faith Christian vs Sankofa Freedom, 6pm at Cheltenham GIRLS 6A Abington vs Northampton, 7:30pm at Souderton Boyertown vs Garnet Valley, 5pm at Spring-Ford Cardinal O’Hara vs Central York, 6:30pm at Santander Arena, Reading North Penn vs CB East, 6pm at Quakertown Souderton vs CB South, 7:30pm at Quakertown Plymouth Whitemarsh vs Council Rock North, 7:30pm at Cheltenham GIRLS 5A Archbishop Wood vs Bishop Shanahan, 6:30pm at Pottstown Archbishop Carroll vs Harrisburg, 6:30pm at Reading HS Geigle Complex Springfield (D) vs Wyoming Valley West, 5pm at Easton Area Middle School GIRLS 4A Gwynedd Mercy Academy vs Greater Nanticoke, 5pm at Parkland HS Lower Moreland vs Berwick, 8pm at Hamburg Area GIRLS 3A St Basil vs Dunmore, 6:30pm at Easton Area Middle School GIRLS A Faith Christian vs Lebanon Catholic, 6pm at Tulpehocken Jenkintown vs Southern Fulton, 6pm at Milton Hershey Spartan Center