A college basketball game was temporarily halted on Tuesday after the court was invaded by bats, with spectators looking on in disbelief.
The game saw Nevada’s men’s team take to the court against Sacramento State at the Lawlor Events Center in Reno, Nevada. Neither team expected to leave the court because of a “swarm” of bats, but most players appeared to be unfazed, moving to the side of the court as they circled and flew around the venue.
The scenes were shared on X, formerly Twitter, by multiple accounts, with @JomboyMedia’s video with the caption: “They had to stop the Sac State vs. Nevada game because bats invaded the court” viewed by social media users over 243,000 times at the time of publication.
Andy Lyons/Getty Images
In the video, the commentators can be heard: “Now the game has stopped… some bats are swarming the floor.”
A second commentator added: “Boy, there is a lot of them.” After a stunned silence, they followed up with: “Holy, mackerel.”
The inconvenient invasion came at a crucial time. The game was halted toward the end of the second half, with 5 minutes and 40 seconds remaining.
At that point, the Sacramento State Hornets men’s team was on 56, hoping to challenge Nevada Wolf Pack’s 63 points.
Commenting on the video, one shocked social media user said: “Hope everyone has updated rabies shots cause yikes.”
One joked: “Dracula not enjoying this game.”
Another chimed in: “How…how did this happen!?” with a second adding: “Bats are nocturnal animals, you’d think that a basketball arena would be the last place, they’d want to go.”
Many avid basketball fans recalled a game in 2009 on Halloween when player Manu Ginobili managed to swat and catch a bat that was flying around during a game.
A social media user shared a video on Ginobili with the caption: “Get this man! Stat!”
Another said: “Real ones know there is only one man to call to deal with this, and his name ain’t Batman. It’s Manu.”
Sports commentator Taylor Morgan shared a video with the caption: “Shoutout to the Wolf Pack Howlers for playing the Batman theme song during tonight’s bat delay.”
In his video, a venue employee can be seen trying to catch the bats in a net.
Once play was able to resume, Nevada went on to beat Sacramento State 77-63.
It wasn’t the first time bats have plagued the Lawlor Events Center. In 2017, it was reported by News 4 that a colony of bats had taken over the University venue for several weeks. Up to 30 bats were estimated to have been living there at the time.
Newsweek has contacted the University of Nevada via email for comment.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.