COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NCAA MEN’S TOURNAMENT : Lights Go Out for West Virginia : East Regional: Missouri uses power outages to regroup and score first-round victory, 89-78.

There is a perfectly good reason why the West Virginia team flinches at the sound of thunder. You’d flinch, too, if Mother Nature kept costing you games, especially ones in the NCAA tournament.

This time the Mountaineers lost to Missouri, 89-78, in the first round of Thursday’s East Regional at the Greensboro Coliseum. The defeat itself wasn’t altogether surprising--Missouri was seeded fifth, West Virginia 12th--but the factors contributing to the defeat were on the odd side.

“That’s the strangest game I’ve coached in during my 29 years of coaching,” West Virginia’s Gale Catlett said.

With 3:27 remaining in the first half and West Virginia leading, 35-32, lightning struck a nearby power substation, causing what tournament officials later described as a “power blip,” which rendered the arena lights useless. A powerful storm system, which spawned a tornado watch for the area, produced the lightning and thunder.

Play resumed about 20 minutes later, only to be disrupted once more by a second lightning strike and power outage. At the time, West Virginia was ahead, 38-34, with 1:34 left in the half.

According to Catlett, as well as Missouri Coach Norm Stewart, the delays allowed the Tigers to regroup and rest. The rest was particularly important, because Missouri’s lack of depth was considered a weakness by West Virginia coaches.

“We were trying to wear them down,” Catlett said. “But if I had a short bench, I would like the way the game was played.”

Stewart wasn’t complaining. The rest--and a couple of intense locker room lectures by Stewart--helped the Tigers go into halftime tied, 38-38.

Missouri gradually took control in the second half. The Tigers led by 10 points with 12 minutes remaining, by 14 with 8:16 left and by 11--80-69--when the lights went out for a third time.

By then, it didn’t matter. Missouri had won only its second NCAA first-round game in its last eight tries. Anthony Peeler led the Tigers with 25 points, and teammates Jevon Crudup and Jamal Coleman each added 18.

For West Virginia, it was the second weather-influenced defeat of the season. During a game against Rhode Island on Feb. 18, a power outage forced a 15- to 30-minute delay. West Virginia led by three points at the time, but the Mountaineers lost by 21.