Bona’s blacked out

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A power outage cancelled the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team’s second game of season Wednesday night.
Around 6:30, as both teams warmed up, a fuse holder in the university’s old boiler plant failed, said Dennis DePerro, Ph.D., university president, in a release. Multiple lights went off in the Reilly Center, and an odd noise came from the speakers.
While the Reilly Center, the Sandra A. and William L. Richter Center and Robinson, Falconio and Doyle Halls remained in partial darkness, maintenance crews looked for a solution.
In an attempt to fix the situation, workers tried to repurpose a fuse holder from Butler Gymnasium, DePerro said. To make the switch, National Grid cut all power, except for their emergency lights, to the affected buildings,. Most of the lights remained off until 8:15, when power was restored. Both teams returned to the court to warm up until 8:23, when the Reilly Center lost power again.
“That’s all for tonight guys,” said injured Bonnies guard Jaylen Adams to the broadcasters at center court. “See you Saturday.”
University officials decided to cancel the game.
At 9:30, after receiving help to find three new fuse holders, National Grid again cut the buildings’ power, installed the new holders and restored power at 9:50, DePerro said.
The outage was not related to the Sept. 15 blackout that affected the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts, De La Roche Hall, the McGinley-Carney Center, the William F. Walsh Science Center, Maintenance and Friedsam Memorial Library, DePerro said, adding that the university began assessing and repairing its aging infrastructure earlier this year.
According to a press release on GoBonnies.com, the schools have begun talks about a makeup date. As of Thursday afternoon, a decision has not yet been finalized. If the game is rescheduled and played in the Reilly Center, all tickets would be good for that game only, according to the statement. If the game is not made up, St. Bonaventure will announce a refund/exchange policy to address the situation, the statement said.
The Bonnies will next try to play in the Reilly Center tomorrow at 4 p.m. against Jackson State University. The game will be the second half of a double header, as the women’s basketball team hosts Eastern Michigan University at 1:30 p.m.