GIRLS BASKETBALL: Traffic jam halts PNG; game postponed

Published 8:28 pm Monday, February 11, 2019

CHANNELVIEW —Port Neches-Groves’ girls basketball team members won’t forget the evening of their first-ever UIL playoff.

It was postponed to the next evening.

A traffic jam that stalled traffic including the Indians’ team bus on Interstate 10 at the San Jacinto River forced postponement of Monday’s 5A bi-district playoff game against Galveston Ball at Channelview High School. The game has been rescheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday at Goose Creek Memorial High School in Baytown.

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The game was scheduled for a 6 p.m. tipoff Monday. Ball’s team members and their fans had arrived early, as did some PNG fans.

The jam was reportedly caused by a barge that hit the Interstate 10 bridge at the San Jacinto River on Monday, causing emergency repairs to be made and traffic to be stalled. The Texas Department of Transportation described the scenario on Twitter only as a “bridge incident.”

The PNG team left campus at 3 p.m. and ran into the stalled traffic at approximately 4 p.m., athletic director Brandon Faircloth said. Officials from both PNG and Ball agreed at 7:37 p.m. to postpone the game, as the team had hardly made any movement toward Channelview.

“You can’t control everything, sometimes, especially 18-wheeler wrecks and boats hitting bridges,” Faircloth said. “It’s unfortunate, but we’re excited about playing [Tuesday] night at 6 o’clock at Goose Creek Memorial and get the girls home, get a good night rest, show up tomorrow night and enjoy the playoffs. … For the betterment of both teams, I don’t think it would have been good to play this late at night.”

PNG-Ball was the only game scheduled Monday at Channelview.

PNG girls athletic coordinator Barbara Comeaux had been in constant contact with the coaches via text. Each time she asked if the Indians were able to move in traffic, she said, the reply was “No.”

The team finally returned home at approximately 11 p.m.

Ball’s players warmed up shortly after 5 p.m., and coach Amanda King had pulled them off the court before 5:30 to keep them from warming up too much. The Lady Tors sat around and talked with their fans during the wait.

“This is definitely a first,” King said of the wait. “We’re definitely disappointed not to take care of business tonight, so we’re looking forward to meeting up with them [Tuesday] at 6 at Goose Creek.”

PNG officials and fans who arrived were alerted about the bridge incident took alternate roads to get to Channelview, including junior Santiago Agudelo, a football and soccer player at the school.

“It took a while to get here,” he said. “Pretty stressful, but all to support our girls.”

Agudelo said he and his family and friends left Port Neches at 4:45 p.m. and arrived at 7:45 p.m.

Agudelo likely won’t get to make it to Goose Creek Memorial on Tuesday.

“I’ll probably be playing soccer [Tuesday] night, at home, 7 o’clock against Port Arthur Memorial,” he said. “It [stinks] that all the fans came out here tonight to support the girls and something like this happens, but adversity happens, and we’re going to have to get over it and go get a win [Tuesday].”

I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews

About I.C. Murrell

I.C. Murrell was promoted to editor of The News, effective Oct. 14, 2019. He previously served as sports editor since August 2015 and has won or shared eight first-place awards from state newspaper associations and corporations. He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, grew up mostly in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and graduated from the University of Arkansas at Monticello.

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