Winter storm postpones college games, cancels horse racing
Two men’s basketball games featuring Top 25 teams, No. 13 Louisville at Temple and No. 23 SMU at Rutgers, were postponed Thursday because of the weather. Both have been rescheduled for tonight.
Other Division I men’s games scheduled for Thursday night that have been postponed include: Charleston Southern at High Point, Bryant at Mount St. Mary’s, Central Connecticut State at St. Francis, Wagner at Farleigh Dickinson, Northern Kentucky at Kennesaw State and Western Carolina at Chattanooga.
In Columbia, S. C., the weather eased enough for South Carolina to beat Vanderbilt 65- 59 in a rescheduled game from Wednesday afternoon. It was eerily quiet with only about 1,000 fans in attendance, and no pep band or cheerleaders.
Due to snow in the Baltimore and Washington D. C. markets, live racing at Laurel Park was cancelled for Thursday. It’s the third cancellation of the year at the central Maryland track.
Today’s races at the Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone, N. Y., have been cancelled.
The winter storm that left the South blanketed in snow on Wednesday, moved up the country’s East coast. In Baltimore, residents awoke to 15 inches of snow. Washington, D. C., had nearly a foot of snow, forcing the city’s two main airports to be closed.
In Chapel Hill, N. C., snow continued to fall and the Tar Heels’ three- game baseball series with College of Charleston starting today was postponed. That comes a day after the postponement of the men’s basketball game between No. 8 Duke and North Carolina, rescheduled for Thursday.
The 17th- ranked Tar Heels women’s team did play Pittsburgh on Thursday night, and No. 10 ranked North Carolina State won at Clemson in a game that started three hours earlier than expected to help with potential travel problems.
South Carolina 65, Vanderbilt 59
COLUMBIA, S. C. — Sindarius Thornwell scored 19 points for South Carolina.
The Gamecocks ( 9- 15, 2- 9) have only won twice in the Southeastern Conference, both times in games when the campus was closed because of snow in the South. The other victory was over Texas A& M on Jan. 29th, the day after winter weather snarled traffic and coated lawns.
Duane Notice’s 3- pointer with 13: 59 left put South Carolina ahead for good. Thornwell added a 3- pointer moments later to start a 17- 5 run as the Gamecocks took control.
Brenton Williams added 14 points for South Carolina and Notice 10.
Kyle Fuller led the Commodores ( 13- 10, 5- 6) with 20 points. Freshman center Damian Jones had 16 points, 10 rebounds and a careerhigh seven blocks for Vanderbilt.
The Gamecocks held Vanderbilt’s top scorer, reigning SEC player of the week Rod Odom, to 3- of- 9 shooting for 10 points, five fewer than his season’s average.
No. 10- women N. C. State 69, Clemson 63, OT
CLEMSON, S. C. — Markeisha Gatling scored 20 points, and combined with Kody Burke for 10 of the Wolfpack’s 13 in overtime.
Myisha Goodwin- Coleman added 18 points for N. C. State ( 22- 3, 9- 2 in Atlantic Coast Confrence), making six of 12 3- pointers. Nikki Dixon led Clemson ( 11- 15, 3- 9) with 18 points.
N. C. State didn’t trail after scoring the first four points of overtime. Clemson trailed 54- 48 with 6: 13 to play, but held the Wolfpack to two points the rest of the way to force overtime.