No fans for D-III game due to virus
At Johns Hopkins, stands empty for Yeshiva-WPI
In what was believed to be the first U.S. sports event held without fans because of the new coronavirus, a Division III men’s basketball NCAA Tournament game was played Friday at an empty gym at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Yeshiva University tipped off against Worcester Polytechnic Institute just after 2 p.m. in an arena occupied only by players, referees, employees and media members. The national anthem and starting lineups went on as normal with players giving each other fist pounds instead of handshakes.
When the first-round game got underway, players on each team chanted “De-fense!” and cheered to make up for the lack of fans in the 1,100-seat Goldfarb Gymnasium. Yeshiva coach Elliot Steinmetz, who shook WPI coach Chris Bartley’s hand, expected it to be awkward.
“This is definitely the first time we’ve had that situation where there’s no fans in the gym,” Steinmetz said.
As students walked by the athletics facility, there were police officers outside and signs on doors reading, “No spectators.” Music blared over the speakers inside and some pre-planned fan announcements, including one promoting social media sharing — “Tell the world you’re here” — went on with no fans to hear them.
An NCAA COVID-19 advisory panel said Friday, it is “not recommending cancellation or public spacing of athletic and related events scheduled to occur in public spaces across the United States.” Johns Hopkins senior scholar Amesh Adalja is on the panel.
Johns Hopkins University said it was “prudent to hold this tournament without spectators” after Maryland’s recently confirmed COVID-19 cases and CDC guidelines for large gatherings. Maryland announced there were three cases of the virus.
A student at Yeshiva, an Orthodox Jewish university in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City, tested positive for the virus.
The game was delayed by more than an hour after a Yeshiva rabbi tested positive and the school needed to provide documentation to ensure it was safe to play. WPI waited at its hotel while that was completed.
The Johns Hopkins gym was heavily disinfected Thursday night.
“We did that specific to make sure that there were no questions that we were doing our due diligence, that everything was clean and ready,” Johns Hopkins director of athletic communications Ernie Larossa said. “We’re just doing our due diligence to make sure that everybody has a safe environment.”
Johns Hopkins offered refunds to fans who bought tickets. Larossa said more than 400 tickets had been sold for the two sessions Friday.
Drake shocks MVC champ: Roman Penn scored a career-high 26 points, including 12 straight to start a gamebreaking 18-0 run midway through the second half, and eighth-seeded Drake shocked Missouri Valley Conference champion Northern Iowa 77-56 in a quarterfinal game Friday in St. Louis.
The Bulldogs shot 59% and led by as many as 16 before settling for a 43-33 halftime lead. The top-seeded Panthers battled back and three times Austin Phyfe pulled them within two, the last time at 50-48 with 12:36 to play.
Shortly after that, Penn went to work. It started with a pair of free throws at the 10:50 mark. He followed up with a couple of layups and a pair of 3-pointers. After teammate Liam Robbins scored inside, Penn hit another jumper and Garrett Sturtz capped the 18-0 run with a pair of free throws for a 67-48 lead with 2:28 to play.
Drake (20-13) reached 20 wins in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 1971.
Northern Iowa (25-6), which won the first meeting at home 83-73, was led by AJ Green with 19 points, although he was just 8-of-25 shooting. Trae Berhow, who averages more than 13 points, was scoreless. The Panthers were 5 of 25 from distance and shot 31% overall.