STORRS, Conn. -- While a major winter storm raged outside, a
leak in the roof of Gampel Pavilion stopped play near the end of
the first half of the Connecticut-Rutgers Big East semifinal.
Play was stopped for about 90 minutes while the leak was
repaired.
UConn was up 41-20 with 3:31 left in the half when officials
called time out for the towel crew to wipe down the moisture near
center court. Both coaches, operations personnel and officials
huddled for more than five minutes to discuss the problem.
Both teams left the floor a few minutes later, and maintenance
crews hoisted Gampel engineer Bill Sehl about 100 feet with a
series of ropes to inspect the leak from the inside.
Sehl said strong winds from the nor'easter pushed the moisture
up into the building's northeast vent.
"I simply contained the leak and cleaned it up. We did the best
we could," Sehl said.
The teams were allowed to warm up for 10 minutes, and halftime
was cut to four minutes.
The 10,000-seat Gampel Pavilion was about half-full.
Notre Dame beat Virginia Tech 67-49 in the opening semifinal to
advance to the final on Tuesday.
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