After a regular season interrupted three times by inclement weather, the trend continued Tuesday when the high school basketball playoffs were put on hold because of icy conditions. Three of the four region tournaments involving Chattanooga-area teams were postponed, meaning today’s schedule will cram boys’ semifinals and girls’ championship games into one evening.
“I don’t remember ever seeing a season like this,” Ooltewah boys’ coach Jesse Nayadley said. “We never really got to get into much of a rhythm the last few weeks because we had so many games postponed. Then we had to try to make them all up in the last few days before the playoffs started. Now this.
Today’s region scheduleAll times EST3-AAA boys’ semifinals at Warren County:Cleveland vs. McMinn County, 5:30Ooltewah vs. Cumberland County, 8:303-AAA girls’ final at Bradley Central:Cleveland girls vs. Walker Valley, 73-AA at East Hamilton:Tyner boys vs. Red Bank, 5McMinn Central girls vs. Polk County, 6:30Howard boys vs. Brainerd, 83-A tournament at Arts & Sciences:Arts & Sciences boys vs. Marion County, 4Grace boys vs. South Pittsburg, 6:30Marion County girls vs. Arts & Sciences, 8
“The bad part about it is with school out, not only do we lose the games but we can’t even practice. It’s frustrating.”
His Owls will take on Cumberland County tonight in a Region 3-AAA semifinal at Warren County, and then Cleveland faces McMinn County. If the Owls win, the tournament championship game Thursday will be moved to McMinn County to cut down on travel.
The 3-AAA girls’ final tonight has been moved to Bradley Central, also to cut down on travel for the two competing teams: Cleveland and Walker Valley.
“I’m really glad we were able to get the game moved closer to both home for both teams,” Cleveland coach Rachel Moore said. “It will benefit both teams and the fans and won’t be an advantage for either of us since it won’t be at either of our home gyms.”
The 3-AA tournament will have two boys’ semifinals and the girls’ final tonight at East Hamilton, while the 3-A tournament at Arts & Sciences will have a similar three-game setup. The boys’ championship games for each of those region tournaments will be played Thursday at 7.