Colleges

Arena goes dark (twice), then North Carolina lights it up in a bizarre tournament semifinal

ACC tournament semifinal against Virginia on March 13, 1993.

By BRIAN LANDMAN
Published March 4, 2007

For North Carolina center Eric Montross, the ACC tournament semifinal against Virginia on March 13, 1993, was hardly just another game.

A couple minutes into the second half of what was a close ballgame, the lights in the Charlotte Coliseum went out as a snowstorm led to sweeping power outages in the area and much of the East Coast.

Play was halted for nearly 29 minutes.

"Looking back on it, it was fun," Montross said. "It was unique. It wasn't a cookie-cutter game experience."

Fans had been warned before the opening tip that the powerful storm, which dropped upwards of 8 inches of snow in Charlotte, might cause some outages, and they should remain seated if that did occur. Which it did. Twice. Even the auxiliary lights failed.

To Montross, it summed up the essence of the tournament, then and now.

"With the ACC tournament," he said, "you should expect the unexpected."

Once the lights came back on, the top-ranked Tar Heels shot lights out and turned a 43-39 lead into a 74-56 win against the unranked Cavaliers. Montross finished with 14 points and seven rebounds. UNC, which lost point guard Derrick Phelps to a bruised tailbone in that game, lost to Georgia Tech the next day then rolled to the NCAA title.

"My parents were there (from Indiana) and were snowed in and couldn't get back until the day after the (championship) game," said Montross, now a radio analyst for his alma mater. "That game has just always stuck in my mind."

[Last modified March 4, 2007, 00:14:28]