Syracuse, N.Y. — Two power surges knocked out scoreboard lights and darkened the JMA Wireless Dome during the Syracuse-California men’s basketball game on Wednesday night.
The first flash occurred during the second half of the game with about 14 minutes remaining.
The lights flickered briefly in the dome and the scoreboards were frozen before eventually powering back on and functioning normally.
The second power surge came after the game went to overtime, when some surrounding lights around the dome stayed off. That took out the scoreboards, which remained black and could not get back on line for the remainder of the game.
The power issue in the dome coincides with widespread reports of power flashes across the county.
Customers across Central New York experienced two brief power outages Wednesday evening due to a fault on a transmission line, according to National Grid spokesperson Jared Paventi.
The transmission line, located in southern Onondaga County, is now operating normally as crews investigate what caused the two brief outages that happened between 8 and 10 p.m., Paventi said. There are no active outages because of the fault at this time, he said.
Paventi declined to comment on what was happening at the dome or across the Syracuse University campus, as that information is not available in National Grid’s system, he said.
A separate power outage affecting 32 people in the town of Manlius is unrelated to this issue, he said.
The basketball court at the dome was lit bright enough for the game to continue.
The game was paused briefly as the officials assessed what to do and conferred with Syracuse head coach Adrian Autry and California coach Mark Madsen.
Syracuse players William Kyle and Nate Kingz said the scoreboards being out and the different look in the dome due to the dimmer lighting did not affect how they played as the court remained fully lit.
“I’ve never had a situation where the power has gone out,” Madsen said. “You know, a lot of us grew up playing basketball out on the blacktop. We had a park out in California where you had to turn the lights on manually, so a lot of us were used to that.”
“Syracuse and the facilities people did an outstanding job to be prepared so this game could be finished,” Madsen said.
The lights that shine on the court run on their own system and were not affected by the power surges, according to Syracuse University Vice President & Chief Facilities Officer Pete Sala.
The game finished with the dome lit up at about half capacity due to the usual residual light from the scoreboards and ribbon lighting failing to reboot after the second power flash.
Syracuse won the game in double overtime 107-100.
– Vince Gasparini contributed reporting