Lights go out during crucial final possession of Little Rock and Louisiana-Lafayette

What a bizarre ending.

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.

Arkansas-Little Rock Trojans trailed Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns by just 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 — an utterly bizarre scene that resembled only the fanfare of a wrestling match in the WWE.

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.

Here is how the Trojans’ official team site described what happened on Friday:

“Little Rock was seeking the possible game-tying or game-winning shot in the waning seconds when the red victory lights in the Cajundome kicked on with five seconds remaining, taking Little Rock out of their set play and forcing a Ruout Monyyong desperation three-pointer at the buzzer that just missed. The ending put a damper on what was a thrilling back-and-forth game between the projected top two teams in the West Division.”

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.

All things considered, 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:

Making matters worse, if Little Rock was affected by the lights going out, it would fall into the category of a fully absurd bad beat for bettors. Little Rock came into the game as one-point underdogs against Lafayette.

Those who had the money line on the Trojans might be out of their minds with frustration right now as well.