COVID issues at Ole Miss postpone next USC women’s basketball game
The impacts of COVID-19 have moved or canceled games for South Carolina football and men’s basketball already over the past week.
Now add women’s basketball to the list, although the virus isn’t affecting the Gamecocks.
The SEC announced the New Year’s Eve conference opener for Dawn Staley’s team has been postponed because of coronavirus issues for Ole Miss. The USC men already had their SEC opener, vs. Kentucky, postponed.
The conference did not indicate if or when the matchup would be made up.
That leaves South Carolina’s Jan. 4 contest at Alabama as its first scheduled SEC game. By that time, the Gamecocks will have played just once in the previous four weeks, a Dec. 17 win over Temple at home.
USC is currently ranked No. 5 nationally, with Staley’s team sitting at 5-1. Carolina hasn’t had any positive coronavirus cases during the season yet, but Staley had said the team had to deal with several quarantine periods during the preseason.
The Gamecocks have had one other game impacted by COVID-19 - one of their Thanksgiving weekend tournament games against Oklahoma was canceled when the Sooners had a number of positive tests.
From the SEC’s release Sunday afternoon:
“The Ole Miss at South Carolina women’s basketball game of December 31 has been postponed due to a combination of positive tests, contact tracing and subsequent quarantining of individuals within the Ole Miss women’s basketball program, consistent with Southeastern Conference COVID-19 management requirements.”
This story was originally published December 27, 2020 at 4:09 PM with the headline "COVID issues at Ole Miss postpone next USC women’s basketball game."
