The Replay: Here’s what happened in the past week in Carolina sports
Just when fans and teams alike started feeling good about things, suddenly the horrors of last season appear to be making a sequel.
COVID-19 made the 2020-21 sports season a unique one, with teams canceling games, or entire seasons and fans being prohibited from attending games.
That’s not quite the case yet, but teams are living day-to-day, not knowing if their opponent will back out because of COVID cases. That was the talk among almost all of the Triangle teams last week. All the talk wasn’t COVID specific as a local highly ranked team fell.
COVID STOPPAGES
Duke, UNC and the Carolina Hurricanes all felt the effects of COVID-19 at some point or another.
On the college scene, the Blue Devils and Tar Heels had to scramble to find new opponents after teams cancelled games due to COVID-19.
Twice in three days, Duke had opponents cancel; first Cleveland State, then Loyola of Maryland. The Tar Heels flew to Las Vegas for the CBS Sports Classic before they found out they wouldn’t be playing UCLA. The Bruins canceled their second game of the week due to COVID protocols. UNC caught a break, though, replacing UCLA with Kentucky. The Wildcats were supposed to play Ohio State, but the Buckeyes had to cancel due to COVID-protocol.
The Carolina Hurricanes were limited to just 16 players versus Detroit on Thursday because multiple players were in COVID protocol.
DOWN GOES STATE
The No. 2 N.C. State women’s basketball team battled back from a double-digit deficit, only to drop a heartbreaker to No. 17 Georgia, 82-80, in overtime.
The Pack took a three point lead after two free throws from Kai Crutchfield, but Bulldogs’ guard Sarah Ashlee Barker hit a desperation 3-pointer with 00:04 remaining to tie the game, forcing overtime.
UGA outscored the Pack 7-5 in overtime. With the loss, N.C. State falls to 0-9 all-time versus Georgia.
PREP COACH STEPS DOWN
After leading Chambers High School to three state championship games in three seasons, Glenwood Ferebee won’t return for a fourth season. At Chambers, Ferebee was 39-5, including 14-1 in the playoffs. Ferebee’s first two teams won N.C. 4AA state championships.
Cardinal Gibbons defeated Chambers 14-2 in the 4A title game in Raleigh. The two titles that Ferebee’s teams won were the first two football state championships in school history.
Ferebee was the Charlotte Observer All-Region and N.C. all-state coach of the year last season.
