Hoopa Valley’s NCS basketball playoff game at home to Urban has been put back until Friday, amid some controversy.

The Warriors, seeded No. 5 in the Division-V bracket, were supposed to host No. 12 Urban on Wednesday night, but, according to Hoopa High, the San Francisco school claimed on Wednesday morning that the team would not be able to make the trip due to the weather.

The NCS then stepped in and made the decision to postpone.

There are no other reports of games being affected by the weather, and as of Wednesday afternoon all of the other games involving local teams are still scheduled to go ahead, including the Fortuna girls trip south to play at Urban.

“They couldn’t travel because of weather conditions, or something,” Hoopa head coach Tyler Mitchell said, adding that he was “not getting all the info.”

The game was originally put back to Thursday at 1 p.m., and later was postponed a second time.

It will now take place on Friday at 1 p.m.

“Most of our community will be working at 1 p.m.,” Mitchell said. “We earned the right to have a home game and have it at a time when our fans can be there.”

The decision seems unfair to the higher seeds in more ways than that, and the Warriors will now be forced to play NCS games on back-to-back days if they beat Urban, with a lot of travel involved.

“If we win and we have to play (No. 4 seed) head-Royce, we’ll have to travel down (to Oakland) right after the game probably,” Mitchell said. 

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Ray Hamill writes at humboldtsports.com, where you can read lots more about sports in Humboldt County.