HOUSTON -- The Elite Eight matchup between Illinois and Iowa on Saturday was delayed 11 minutes by a broken horn at the Toyota Center.
The horn had to be replaced by a manual air horn operated by a scoreboard operator on the sideline, as a result.
As players returned to the floor for the under eight-minute timeout, the horn in the arena was muffled and would not shut off. Arena officials, players, fans and coaches were seemingly confused by it all.
Iowa head coach Ben McCollum urged officials to allow the teams to play with the broken horn.
The horn eventually stopped but then a section of lights in the arena and the entire jumbotron shut off.
The NCAA said in a statement afterward the malfunction occurred when the scoreboard system froze, causing the horn to freeze as well and go off for seven minutes. The jumbotron was forced to be shut off in order to silence the horn. The NCAA said an attempt to reset the jumbotron at halftime was unsuccessful.
After some brief stretching and jogging, the players returned to the court with a manual air horn being used to stop and restart action.
Once play resumed, Iowa star Bennett Stirtz promptly hit a 3-pointer to extend his team's lead to five, 27-22.
Illinois went on to win, 71-59.
