Leaky roof halts MC&S-New Media playoff

Seven-and-three-quarters of the Public League's round-of-16 basketball playoffs took place yesterday.

And then there was the Class A semifinal between two Charters - Math, Civics and Sciences and visiting New Media - that was played at Berean Institute, 19th and Girard. Rain and a bad roof are not a good combination.

Fearful of injuries, the refs halted the game 6 seconds into the fourth quarter. MC & S leads, 63-48, and the game will be finished today, same site (hopefully), starting at 1:30.

"We were told they want the same refs to finish it," said MC & S coach Danny Jackson. "One or two have girls' playoffs afterward, so that's why we're starting at 1:30."

Jackson said the wet spot was on a wing, roughly parallel with the top of a three-point arc.

"When the action would go from that end to the other, Berean's maintenance man would go out and dry it up," he said. "He was getting a little tired of it, truthfully. I didn't see anybody slip, but the New Media coach [Al Greene] said one of our guys plucked the ball from his guy because he was worried about the wet spot.

"I understood the decision to stop the game. I respected it."

-- Ted Silary