No. 1 Notre Dame moves game after power outage
HOUSTON (AP) - In one of the most bizarre scenarios imaginable at a major sporting event, top-ranked Notre Dame and Louisiana-Lafayette switched venues in the middle of their game due to a power outage.
The teams were playing at the Campbell Center when a power outage caused a long delay in the second quarter on Tuesday night. After calling around to local schools, the rest of the contest was played at Rice University, about 30 minutes away from the original venue. The teams bused over to Rice and picked up where they left off after a 2-hour, 35-minute delay. Notre Dame led 38-17 with 2:38 left in the second quarter.
The game was stopped when the lights in the arena shut off and a couple flashes of light could be seen behind loading dock doors in the corner of the arena. Emergency lights came on in the arena soon after.
Both teams were sent to the locker rooms with several pops and flashes heard and seen intermittently.
Rice's arena was available as the women's team played Grand Canyon on Tuesday night. The Notre Dame game resumed at 10:11 p.m. with about 30 friends and family in attendance. The teams skipped halftime, taking just a brief break between the second and third quarters.
The game was a homecoming for Notre Dame junior forward Brianna Turner, who played high school basketball south of Houston. McGraw had tried to get some of the local schools to play the Irish, but couldn't pull it off, forcing the Hall of Fame coach to play a neutral site game against the Ragin' Cajuns.
The team had dinner at Turner's house Monday night.