Duke women’s basketball ends season amid virus
The Duke women’s basketball team ended its season Friday amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“The student-athletes on the Duke women’s basketball team have made the difficult decision to conclude their current season due to safety concerns,” said Michael Schoenfeld, Vice President for Public Affairs & Government Relations and Chief Communications Officer for Duke University.
“We support their decision, as we have supported the choices made by all student-athletes at Duke during this unprecedented time. Duke will maintain our current schedule of competition in other sports and will continue to observe our rigorous health and safety protocols, which include daily testing for all studentathletes and are based on guidance from leading medical experts.”
The men’s basketball team planned to keep playing.
The women’s basketball team has been on pause since Dec. 16 because of two positive COVID-19 tests and contact tracing within the program’s travel party. The Blue Devils (3-1) postponed games against Miami, N.C. State and UNC Wilmington. The team’s next scheduled contest was against Louisville on Thursday.
The Blue Devils are the first Power Five team to drop out after starting this season. The Ivy League opted out of winter sports in November before the basketball season started. A few other schools also decided not to play.
New coach Kara Lawson, who was hired in July, had said this month: “I don’t think we should be playing right now. That’s my opinion on it.” That came a day after Duke men’s coach Mike Krzyzewski questioned why college basketball was being played in the midst of the pandemic. MEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL: NO. 9 WISCONSIN BEATS NO. 12 MICHIGAN STATE » D’Mitrk Trice scored a season-high 29 points, lifting No. 9 Wisconsin to a 85-76 win over No. 12 Michigan State. The Badgers (8-1, 2-0 Big Ten) won at the Breslin Center for the first time since 2004 and extended their Big Ten winning streak to 10 games, dating to last season when they shared the conference title with the Spartans and Maryland.
Michigan State (6-2, 0-2) trailed by two points before Wisconsin scored 14 of the last 21 points over the final 4:03 to turn a closely contested game into a lopsided result.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL: BUFFALO WINS CAMELLIA BOWL » Kevin Marks scored on a 1-yard touchdown run with 1:09 left and Buffalo made a final defensive stop to beat Marshall, 17-10, in the Camellia Bowl on Friday.
Subbing for the national leader in rushing yards per game, Jaret Patterson, Marks carried 35 time for 138 yards for the Bulls (6-1) against one of the nation’s top run defenses.
Grant Wells took Marshall (7-3), which had rallied from a 10-0 deficit, to the Buffalo 20 with no timeouts. Kadofi Wright’s sack helped force a fourth-and-11 and Eric Black added his second sack to end the threat.
Buffalo improved to 2-3 in bowls, also beating Charlotte in the 2019 Bahamas Bowl.