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WAC cancels basketball tournament, suspends league spring competition

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FILE: In this Wednesday, March 18, 2015 file photo, the NCAA logo is on the court as work continues at The Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh. On Thursday, the WAC announced it has canceled its basketball tournament and awarded the league’s men’s and women’s NCAA Tournament bids to its regular-season champions.

AP

SALT LAKE CITY — The WAC basketball tournament has been canceled, based on a recommendation from the NCAA’s COVID-19 advisory panel.

Per league policy, the WAC’s regular-season champions — New Mexico State men’s team and the Missouri-Kansas City women — will be awarded the NCAA Tournament automatic bids.

The conference made the announcement Thursday morning, less than 24 hours after three of the four women’s basketball quarterfinal games were played Wednesday to open the tournament. 

The Orleans Arena was evacuated Wednesday night and the women’s quarterfinal game between Cal-State Bakersfield and Grand Canyon was initially postponed “due to a medical situation.” The UVU women lost to Seattle 61-48 in the third quarterfinal matchup of the day, prior to the postponement.

The UVU men were scheduled to play in the WAC quarterfinals Thursday night at 9:30 p.m. MST.

The conference took it a step further, announcing later in the morning that all spring competition for the conference will be suspended until further notice.