By William Hathaway
On Feb. 22, Governor Phil Murphy announced there will be a limited number of people allowed to attend professional and college games in New Jersey amid the Coronavirus pandemic. Parents of college athletes will be allowed to attend games effective immediately, and venues with a 5,000 seating capacity or more will be allowed to have a 10 percent of that capacity at indoor games. This would include teams like the Devils and Seton Hall. However, Rutgers might be barred under Big Ten COVID-19 rules.
There is a 15 percent cap for outdoor events. For now, that means the New York Giants and New York Jets will be allowed to have fans at MetLife Stadium.
As for the Hall, a tough 81-75 loss at Georgetown has the men’s team on the bubble for the NCAA Tournament. Meanwhile, the women’s basketball team last week won a big game against providence 67-55. The Lady Pirates are 11-6 this season in the Big East Conference.
In local high school basketball, the University High girls’ team from Newark has been ranked 8th in the state Top 20 with an 8-0 record. Some key victories include beating West Orange 41-27 and a 60-30 win over East Orange. In that game, senior Tara Johnson captured her 1000 point in her four years at UHS. Other games this week had Orange taking care of Belleville 46-12 and West Side slipping by Barringer 48-42.
Finally, golfer Tiger Woods was badly injured in a car crash while on his way from a tournament in California. It was a single car roll-over accident after 7 am local time, and he was removed from the wreck through the windshield. As of press time, no other details are available.