Ending of Little Rock-Louisiana game disrupted by lighting malfunction

The college basketball season has been strange, sure, but the ending of this Friday night match is among the most chaotic you’ve ever seen.

The Arkansas-Little Rock Trojans trailed Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns by one possession. But after pulling down a rebound, the Trojans had a chance to either tie the match or win with a buzzer-beater. Junior guard Markquis Nowell dribbled the ball up the floor as the game neared its end.

Nowell attempted to run a high pick-and-roll with big Ruot Monyyong. But just as the senior was about to set his screen, the lights in the arena cut out and everything turned red to signal a victory.

You can watch the chaos of the moment fully unfold in the video below:

The announcers on the call were appropriately perplexed but Nowell seemed focused on trying to complete the play, scrambling with just three seconds, so as to not lose the game.

But the sequencing of the events might have frazzled Little Rock to the point where the offense was presumably unable to get the final look they wanted. He dumped the ball to Monyyong, who would ultimately miss his 3-pointer as the clock expired.

As for why the referees did not blow the whistle to stop the possession after the arena operations failure, as Little Rock coach Darrell Walker argued, that is yet another element of this mystery.

The Sun Belt Conference released a statement saying that the game officials didn't properly handle the situation and should have stopped the game and given Little Rock the ball out of bounds with five seconds left.

The entirety of the initial blackout in the arena lasted no more than two seconds before turning back on. After the end of the game, the lights went off again for another twelve seconds.

Walker, enraged, then approached the scorer’s table and eventually had to be restrained after yelling at the officials.