By Rob Centorani

Staff Writer

So much for a winter getaway for the Hartwick College women’s basketball team.

The Hawks were scheduled to compete against Thomas More College (Ky.) on Monday and Doane College (Neb.) on Tuesday in the Pre-Christmas Tournament at St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. Hartwick has removed the two tournament games from its 2006-07 women’s basketball schedule, and on Thursday, refused to comment on the cancellations.

Both games were part of the schedule Hartwick released at the start of the season, but a gap of white space now appears on the women’s basketball schedule web page between the Hawks’ last game _ a 68-65 loss to Oneonta State on Saturday _ and their next game _ Jan. 2 against visiting William Smith College.

"They have been dropped from the schedule," Hartwick sports information director John Gilger confirmed Thursday. Gilger refused to comment on the reason for the schedule change and said no other athletic department official would be willing to discuss the particulars of the cancellations.

Thomas More SID J. Ameer Rasheed said Hartwick president Richard P. Miller Jr. cancelled the games because of an on-campus incident.

"Something happened on campus," Rasheed said, "and the president pulled (Hartwick) from the tournament."

Miller could not be reached for comment as his home phone number is not listed. Hartwick women’s basketball coach Daphne Thompson did not return messages left on her home and school phones by The Daily Star on Thursday night. Athletic director Debbie Warren did not return a message left for her at the college Thursday.

Fran Borrego, who is Hartwick’s director of marketing and communications, said the games were removed from the schedule because of disciplinary reasons stemming from an incident happened before Hartwick’s non-conference loss to host Oneonta State on Saturday.[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Borrego went on to say the college announced the tournament cancellations to the team "a while ago, a few week now," but that he did not know the specifics of the incident that resulted in the schedule change. Borrego added that Warren was out of town Thursday to attend an Empire 8 Conference meeting, and that the college will not comment further.

Hartwick, which opens play in the Empire 8 Conference on Jan. 6 at Utica College, is 2-4 this season.

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Rob Centorani can be reached at rcentorani@thedailystar.com or 607-432-1000, ext. 209.