Article updated: 3/7/2013 11:31 PM

Basketball teams weathering a scheduling problem

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Sean O'Mara of Benet powers his way under the basket against Neuqua Valley during the boys basketball Class 4A Bolingbrook sectional semifinals in Bolingbrook, Thursday. Benet defeated Neuqua Valley 68-62.

Mark Black | Staff Photographer

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In 20 years of covering high school basketball, I can’t remember another time when snow played such a major factor in the playoffs. For two straight weeks we’ve had snowouts that canceled an entire slate of Tuesday games. That meant regional and sectional semifinal games were bumped a day to Wednesday and Thursday. What that also meant, unfortunately, was Thursday semifinal winners had to turn around and play a title game with less than 24 hours of rest and little prep time. The impact in the regional was glaring. In 14 Class 3A and 4A matchups between Wednesday and Thursday semifinal winners, the more-rested Wednesday team won 11 of 14 games. Keep in mind, though, that the higher seeds played Wednesday.