Slippery floor conditions put halt to St. Mary’s-Swampscott boys hoop game

LYNN – It was an unexpectedly snowy and cold evening on Monday outside the Tony Conigliaro Gymnasium and the weather helped to cause something that St. Mary’s coach Kevin Moran had never seen in all his years of coaching.The Spartans were firmly in control against Swampscott, leading by as much as 25 points in the third quarter, but officials were forced to step in and put a halt to the contest after three players nearly went flying into the crowd because of slippery floor conditions.”I think, probably, there were people walking in from outside with snow on their sneakers,” Swampscott coach Justin Fucile said. “It was like wax on the court. St. Mary’s tried to wipe it.”As of last night, no makeup date had been set.Click here for a photo gallery.”You don’t want to see a kid get hurt,” Moran said. “The officials said they’d never seen something like that in all the years they’ve done this.”The teams played through the first half without incident as the Spartans led 42-22 at the break. Early in the third quarter, however, Swampscott’s Matt Duquette slipped in the corner nearest the fan entrance to the gym and went feet first into the bleachers.Fortunately Duquette would leave the floor under his own power. Minutes later, another Big Blue player slipped on the wet floor, causing the officials to get the coaches together for a conversation before the game continued.”It should have been stopped immediately once the first kid went down,” Fucile said. However, he added, “You can’t blame anybody. They did put things over it ? But the water kept spreading. It was slushy and wet on the court and in the corner.”Throughout the quarter, arena staff and St. Mary’s athletic director Jeff Newhall were doing everything possible to rectify the situation. But when a Spartan player went to the floor trying to block a shot as time expired in the third, the officials finally pulled the plug.”We tried everything we could to fix the floor. It was just a combination of the chemicals from outside and the people standing down there,” Newhall said.”You don’t like to see a game stopped,” Fucile said. “It was the right decision. There’s no one I fault.”Before the craziness began, the Spartans were very much in command.Thanks to a first half barrage of 3-pointers, St. Mary’s ran out to a 33-12 lead late in the first half and eventually led by 20 at the break.”We were playing really well,” Moran said. “Our ball movement was great.”The Spartans pushed the lead out to 50-25 before Swampscott began to chip away and cut the lead to 53-37 when the brakes were put on the game.”If you’re coming in from outside, don’t stand in the corner,” Fucile said. “You should be up in the bleachers.”