Editor’s note: This story has been updated since it was first published. Related reading: A list of Dallas-area high schools that have canceled or postponed athletic events due to the coronavirus.

SAN ANTONIO — A half-hour before its boys basketball state tournament was scheduled to start, the UIL announced Thursday morning that the tournament would still be held at the Alamodome, but with a limited number of fans in attendance because of the coronavirus.

Even after the semifinal games started at 8:30 a.m., UIL deputy executive director Jamey Harrison warned that the situation was fluid and that there was no guarantee that the three-day tournament would be completed.

A couple of hours later, the tournament was halted, just like professional and college sports throughout the United States. The UIL announced at halftime of the first Class 3A semifinal -- in which Madison beat Coldspring-Oakhurst, 90-73 -- that the remainder of the tournament was being suspended until further notice after the conclusion of the afternoon’s 3A semifinals because of “growing concerns" over the coronavirus (known as COVID-19).

“This was a very, very painful decision for us. Unfortunately, we reached a point where we felt suspending the tournament was best for all involved. It has escalated at a pace that is just different than any of us have experienced,” Harrison said. “We realize making this decision and the decision we made prior to limit the number of fans in the building, was not the most convenient for the communities here supporting these teams. But we felt like it was the best we could do to do our part to help keep our great state healthy.”

Harrison said it is the UIL’s intention to finish the state tournament “at some point in the future,” but that right now there is no cutoff date for when it would have to be completed by. Harrison said that if the state tournament can be completed, that the UIL would like to do that at the Alamodome, but it’s too early to determine if that will be possible.

The Alamodome had several safeguards in place. Those included anti-bacterial sanitizing stations and enhanced cleaning and sanitation initiatives before and during the tournament in locker rooms. Every seat in the arena was disinfected between sessions, and extra custodial workers were brought on and tasked with regularly wiping down high-touch surface areas in the parts of the arena that drew the most traffic.

Not long after the second 3A semifinal was over, the fans had already exited the Alamodome and facility workers had begun cleaning the arena.@SportsDayHS @uiltexas @ihss_dfw @wfaasports @Tabchoops pic.twitter.com/wqnXJF71g1 — Greg Riddle (@DMNGregRiddle) March 12, 2020

Harrison has been in regular contact with the Texas Education Agency and other state and local agencies for the last several weeks, and he said the UIL talked to San Antonio health officials, who have national organizations advising them. No other UIL spring sports were immediately suspended, but Harrison said that the UIL is working around the clock to develop contingency plans for all sports still going on and that the UIL intends to complete state championship events for all athletic, academic and music activities.

In 2009, the UIL suspended interscholastic competition for about two weeks because of an outbreak of the swine flu in Texas. In the Dallas area, school districts started to announce Thursday night that they were canceling district competitions scheduled for the next week and a half.

Harrison said that, for now, the UIL will leave those decisions to the school districts.

“A large number of schools in the Houston area announced just within the last hour or two that they will all be closed next week, but Houston being closed doesn’t mean the Panhandle will be closed or the Valley will be closed or Central Texas will be closed,” Harrison said.

“We have to trust that the educational leaders in these communities are making sound decisions. They have the most information about their community, about their students, so those are local decisions at this point.”

Fans who purchased tickets for the postponed state tournament games will be issued full refunds at point of sale or from the school they purchased their tickets from. Fans who purchased All Tournament tickets will be issued a full refund.

“Our kids are pretty upset, but they understand because of what’s going on in our country and the world,” Argyle coach Russell Perkins told the Denton Record-Chronicle. “They knew there was a chance this could happen. They’re resilient kids who know what’s going on, and they understand what’s more important sometimes than basketball.”

Argyle was scheduled to play its Class 4A semifinal Friday. The only games completed before the tournament was suspended were the 1A and 3A semifinals, and Argyle was among the six Dallas-area teams that never got to step on the court, along with Duncanville, Wylie, Lancaster, Mansfield Timberview and Oak Cliff Faith Family.

“It’s been a whirlwind,” Faith Family coach Brandon Thomas said. “Definitely unexpected, but at the same time you have to put safety first. We obviously would love to play the game and have an opportunity to compete, but I understand the position the UIL and city officials are in. Safety first, especially when it comes to kids.

“You're kind of in a holding state. According to the UIL, we may play the games at a later date. We’ll be on spring break when we get back. We’ll just wait to hear something official.”

Texas wasn’t the only state taking this action for high school basketball. The Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association postponed its state tournament.

The McDonald’s All-American basketball games that were scheduled for April 1 in Houston were canceled Thursday, as was the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays track and field meet that was set for March 25-28 at the University of Texas’ Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin. Deja Kelly of Class 6A state champion Duncanville and Irving MacArthur’s Hannah Gusters had been scheduled to play in the McDonald’s All-American girls game.

Private schools had not been affected, as of Thursday afternoon.

TAPPS announced that it has not made any changes to its schedule for athletic championship events, although it said that if a member school closes for reasons associated with the COVID-19 situation, all contests should be postponed until a later date when all schools have resumed play. The Southwest Preparatory Conference has already held its Winter Championships.

The UIL held its girls basketball state tournament in San Antonio last week without any limitations for fans. That was the plan for the boys tournament as of Wednesday.

But that changed after the NBA announced Wednesday night that it was suspending its season because of the coronavirus. On Thursday, news came out that the NHL had suspended its season, the NCAA had canceled championships in all spring sports — including the NCAA Tournament for basketball — and Major League Baseball delayed the start of its regular season by at least two weeks.

“It’s not the fact that the NCAA or the NBA or Major League Baseball made some decisions to suspend play,” Harrison said. “It’s the information on which they made those decisions that really impacted us.”

Before announcing that the event was being suspended, the UIL was going to allow normal entry for those with pre-purchased tickets for semifinal games Thursday and Friday, but no additional tickets were being sold for semifinal games. A limited number of championship game tickets for the winning teams were going to be sold on-site at the box office immediately following the semifinal games.

Harrison said that the UIL went with that plan originally because the Alamodome is a 22,000-seat arena, and that by allowing limited attendance, there was going to be enough room for fans to safely spread out. Harrison said the UIL didn’t consider holding games for the tournament without any fans in attendance.

“If the games aren’t safe enough for any fans to be here, then it’s not safe enough for the kids to be here,” he said.

The UIL did not announce attendance figures for the games that were played Thursday. But there were huge pockets of empty seats, with some sections entirely vacant, because of the attendance limitations that were in place.

Nazareth, which played in the first game of the day, traveled just over 460 miles to San Antonio -- and then fans who had not pre-purchased tickets were informed that they couldn’t attend the semifinals. Slidell, which played in the other 1A semifinal, had to go more than 320 miles to get to the Alamodome.

Here is a look at the crowd for the Slidell vs. Jayton Class 1A state semifinal. The @uiltexas is only allowing fans with pre-purchased tickets to attend boys basketball state tournament because of coronavirus.@SportsDayHS @dallasnews @Tabchoops @ihss_dfw @wfaasports @MaxPreps pic.twitter.com/MrsWKkO17N — Greg Riddle (@DMNGregRiddle) March 12, 2020

After his team lost 45-28, to Slidell, Jayton coach Ryan Bleiker said, “We didn’t have any reservations playing. There was a lot of discussion on it last night with coaches in the hotel room.”

Slidell coach Casey Pierce added: “Until they tell me you can’t play, you must go home ... we kind of block it out and don’t pay a lot of attention to it. I’m going to put my trust in the UIL doing what they say they’re doing. They’re trying to take steps to keep us as protected as can possibly be.”

San Antonio Cole four-star sophomore center Vince Iwuchukwu, rated by 247Sports as the fourth-best player in Texas in the Class of 2022, understood the UIL’s decision.

“The safety of every team that made it here, and all the fans, is more important than us winning the state championship,” he said after Cole beat Peaster, 58-44, in the second 3A semifinal.

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