One minute 30 seconds into the Otago Nuggets National Basketball League match against the Nelson Giants the backboard slumped under the weight of a ferocious dunk from Michael Harrison.
The wires and the centre strut kept the backboard from crashing to the floor but it hung at a sickly angle.
With no possibility of it being repaired in a timely fashion the game was shifted to an adjacent court.
There was a 30-minute delay as officials and staff scrambled to shift the retractable seating and an understanding 1000-strong crowd shifted to their new seats.
The incident rather robbed the match of some of its atmosphere in the first half but the Nuggets' dramatic win in overtime more than compenated for the fans being further away from the action.
Edgar Centre manager Blair Crawford said it was just one of those things.
"`It is quite ironic. We have new international standard backboards arriving in the next couple of weeks."
The new backboards are worth $30,000 and are expected to arrive by May 11. The Nuggets' next home game is against the Auckland Pirates on May 5.
"That is our main concern. We'll have to get the engineers to have a look and see what can be done."
It was the second incident in as many days with the sound system failing on Saturday night. The problem was eventually rectified in time for the final quarter.
Turns out someone had pulled out the wrong plug.
