Lady Trojans, Lady Rockets off until Monday
Chris Minerd’s worst fear has become Chris Niemiec’s reality, thanks to the weatherman.
All of Saturday’s WPIAL playoff basketball action was postponed until Monday, with sites preserved but times moved from early afternoon to evening hours.
Therefore, Minerd’s California girls team will play Riverview at 6:30 p.m. Monday at Norwin and Niemiec’s Jefferson-Morgan girls will play Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic at 6:30 p.m. Monday at Peters Township.
Minerd had expressed an uneasiness about a 10-day lay-off between his team’s last regular-season game and its first playoff game, but the Lady Trojans responded with a 63-37 win over Sewickley Academy in Wednesday’s playoff opener.
Now it’s Niemiec who is a bit concerned about the nine days between games for his JM girls. The Lady Rockets beat Cornell, 53-42, in a first-round game, but were not scheduled to play again until yesterday.
“The WPIAL called the games off until Monday,” said Minerd, also Cal’s athletic director. “We talked a little bit about it Friday night (when Cal’s boys team lost to Monessen), but they didn’t want to postpone based on a forecast.
“I got a call about 8-8:15 Saturday morning saying they moved all of Saturday’s games to Monday and they also moved our boys game from Monday to Tuesday (8 p.m. at Peters Township).”
Cal’s boys team will take on Cornell in a PIAA play-in game, with the winner playing again Thursday for a berth in the state bracket.
The WPIAL tries to schedule girl-boy double-headers when both teams from the same school are involved in the playoffs. When that is not possible, the District 7 governing body at least doesn’t schedule boys and girls teams from the same school to play on the same night.
“I’m not sure how many schools are in our situation, with both teams still alive,” Minerd said. “But I think they tried to keep all locations the same.”
Niemiec said his team will take the weekend off before their Monday matchup against No. 2 seed North Catholic.
“We had a good practice Friday,” Niemiec said. “It hurts not playing since last Saturday, but we had good practices all week. We might get in the gym after school on Monday for about an hour, just to shoot around.”
North Catholic also hasn’t played since last Saturday, but as a No. 2 seed is expected to win, a tidbit not lost on Niemiec.
“We know we have to limit our turnovers and somehow limit them to one shot,” Niemiec said. “We know that would play more into our hands.”
Minerd said the switch to Monday would be good news for the Lady Trojans fans.
“Some people like weekend games, but I think our fans prefer a weeknight game,” he said. “I’m pretty sure we’ll have a better crowd on Monday than we would have had on a Saturday.”