Tuesday that means better ticket sales,

HOUSTON -- Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said she would do just about anything for junior forward Brianna Turner.That includes playing one of the strangest and longest games in college basketball in what was a homecoming for the Irishs All-America star.In one of the most bizarre scenarios imaginable at a major sporting event, top-ranked Notre Dame and Louisiana-Lafayette switched venues in the middle of their game due to a power outage. Even with the switch in venue and the delay, the Irish were too much for the Ragin Cajuns, winning 91-51 in a game that took nearly four hours to complete Tuesday night.I thought we showed great resilience to battle through all the adversity we had, McGraw said. The longest game in the history of womens basketball.The teams were playing at the Campbell Center in front of roughly 1,000 fans when a power outage caused a long delay in the second quarter. After calling around to local schools, the rest of the contest was played at Rice University, about 30 minutes away from the original venue. The teams bused over to Rice and picked up where they left off after a 2-hour, 35-minute delay. Notre Dame led 38-17 with 2:38 left in the second quarter.We had three options -- play tomorrow, cancel or find a place to play tonight, McGraw said. I think both teams wanted to play the game. We got here, we wanted to finish it, and coming back tomorrow morning to finish it didnt seem as much fun.Rices arena was available as the womens team played Grand Canyon on Tuesday night.The Notre Dame game resumed at 10:11 p.m. with about 30 friends and family in attendance as well as the Rice womens basketball team. The teams had a 10 minute warm-up, skipped halftime, taking just a brief break between the second and third quarters. The final 22 minutes took about 50 minutes to finish, making total game time about an hour and 30 minutes.I think you have to relax a little bit, McGraw said about how Notre Dame stayed focus. The girls were able to unwind in the locker room. They were able to stay upbeat and positive. For them, this is primetime. They are wide awake. It was the coaches I was worried about falling asleep on the bench.Turner, a Houston native, had 16 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Irish.At the Campbell Center, it was very exciting when the lights went out, Turner said. I knew we thought we would be able to play there, but of course, we couldnt. It was so nice of Rice -- they played a game here, too, tonight -- to let us use their facilities and finish our game.The game was originally stopped when the lights in the arena shut off and a couple flashes of light could be seen behind loading dock doors in the corner of the arena. Emergency lights came on in the arena soon after. Both teams were sent to the locker rooms with several pops and flashes heard and seen intermittently.Thats why I coach basketball because it is inside, and we dont have no rain delays or weather problems or anything like that, Louisiana-Lafayette coach Garry Brodhead said. I have never been to a game where we had to stop it, wait awhile, move venues, so I never even thought about it.The game was a homecoming for Turner, a junior forward who played high school basketball south of Houston. McGraw had tried to get some of the local schools to play the Irish, but couldnt pull it off, forcing her to play a neutral site game against the Ragin Cajuns.The team had dinner at Turners house Monday night. Turner went to high school at Manvel, which is about 10 miles south of Houston.Manvel High School cheerleaders, dance team and band were in attendance and donned lime green Irish shirts while playing the Notre Dame fight song at the Campbell Center, but they did not make the trip to Rice. Neither did former Irish great Skylar Diggins, who was at the Campbell Center.Marina Mabrey added a career-high 27 points.Jaylyn Gordon had 16 points and Jasmin Thomas added 15 points for Louisiana-Lafayette, which shot 31 percent but forced 21 turnovers.BIG PICTURELouisiana-Lafayette: The Ragin Cajuns stayed with Notre Dame for one quarter, trailing 19-15 after one. The second quarter was not kind for Louisiana-Lafayette, which started the quarter 0 for 9 from the floor and turned the ball over four times.Notre Dame: The Fighting Irish got in a groove and didnt let the delay affect them. Notre Dame hit nine of 12 from the field in the second and was in a rhythm defensively when the lights went out. When play resumed, Notre Dame did not let up. The Fighting Irish did commit seven turnovers in the first quarter, and that allowed the Ragin Cajuns to stay in it.UP NEXTLouisiana-Lafayette: The Ragin Cajuns will play Southeast Missouri State Friday as part of the Lady Eagle Thanksgiving Classic in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.Notre Dame: The Fighting Irish will host TCU on Saturday Jonathan dos Santos Jersey . 10 Texas Rangers jersey for one last time. Young formally announced his retirement Friday after returning to Rangers Ballpark, his baseball home for all but the last of his 13 major league seasons. Hugo Ayala Jersey . Marincin has played in two NHL games so far this season with two penalty minutes. 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STORRS, Conn. -- American Athletic Conference Commissioner Mike Aresco noted the difference on Tuesday.His conference, which a day before had been facing the potential loss of two or even four of its highest-profile programs to the Big 12, finds itself in a stronger position after the Power Five league decided not to add anyone, he said.The silver lining in this, and it wasnt always great over the last six months ... is that we got a lot of attention, Aresco told The Associated Press. The brand has never been better known.Of the 11 schools interviewed as candidates by the Big 12, seven of them: UCF, Cincinnati, UConn, Houston, South Florida, SMU, and Tulane are members of the AAC. Three other league schools, Temple, Memphis and East Carolina, were dropped as candidates earlier in the process.Aresco said that kind of exposure helps him make the argument that his league plays at a Power Five level and should eventually be considered part of a Power Six.I think we can build on that and build on our `Power Six narrative, he said. Now, we can resume, reinforce and refocus. I think if the perception is there that we are on that level, we have a chance.Aresco said part of that will be approaching ESPN soon about the possibility of re-opening the Americans TV contract. The league is in the midst of a six-year, $126 million deal with ESPN that expires in 2020.The Big 12, by comparison, has a 13-year, $2.6 billion television contract it signed in 2012.Aresco said he hopes ESPN will be willing to talk about a new deal before the AAC contract hits the open market in 2019.We need a contract that is closer to what the P-55 has than what we have now, he said.ddddddddddddIn the meantime, schools such as UConn, which wont see the hoped-for financial windfall from joining an actual Power Five conference, said they will have to do a better job raising money at the institutional level.UConn athletic director David Benedict said Tuesday that means better ticket sales, fundraising, local media contracts and sponsorship deals.The nice thing about today is that were in control of our own destiny, he said. We dont have anything that is holding us back from moving forward, because were not waiting for someone that we dont have any control over to make a decision that really is going to have an impact on our future.He didnt comment on whether the Huskies are interested in considering other conference options, such as rejoining the Big East for basketball, but said the school is committed to making the American the best conference it can be.Cincinnati football coach Tommy Tuberville, meanwhile, said he still believes his school will get another shot at the Power Five over the next five or six years.This is not the end of the line, he said. Theres going to be huge turnover, theres going to be a realignment, theres going to be things happen.But Aresco said that while he doesnt have a crystal ball, he believes there will be substantial period of quiet before there is any more talk of conference realignment, and for the American, thats a good thing.That will give us a chance to continue building the brand, he said. ' ' '