Watch: Wild One-of-a-Kind Buzzer-Beater Wins Game for HS Team
Sometimes in basketball, as in life, things don’t go according to plan but still work out great.
That was the case Saturday for the Manila High basketball team in Utah during its game against Tabiona High.
The game was tied at 44 with just a few ticks left on the clock and Manila was inbounding the ball under its own basket.
The coach surely drew up a play to get a player an open look or an easy shot. But upon receiving the inbounds pass, a Manila player — identified by USA Today as Garrett Slaugh — fumbled the ball a bit, which threw everything out of sync.
That forced the player, with his back to the basket, to just launch a shot toward the hoop, mindful of the saying, “You miss every shot you don’t take.”
Well, he didn’t miss his circus behind-the-back shot — he nailed it and became a viral star.
Just imagine losing on this shot… ? (via @tanney_23) pic.twitter.com/Fas7wSAsi2
— Overtime (@overtime) February 19, 2019
The young man casually launched a no-look, over-the-shoulder shot like he had practiced it for years. It wouldn’t be a surprise if he called “bank” while it was in the air or rather … “game.”
This clearly wasn’t the planned play, but it looks like the coach had a sure-fire game winner drawn out. During the sequence of the play before the inbound, there were a number of screens set by Manila players that confused the defense.
Right as Manila inbounded the ball, you can see just how open the shooter was — three Tabiona players were guarding another player, leaving him with what appeared to be a wide-open layup.
Whether an easy layup or a circus trick shot, the end result was the same and Manila won its season finale 46-44 and avenged its loss to Tabiona from January.
Something must be in the water in Utah, as just one week earlier another school there won on a wild buzzer-beater.
On Feb. 9, the Utah Utes trailed UCLA by two points with six seconds remaining. The Utes were forced to go the length of the court to attempt a game-tying shot, but they elected to go for the win instead.
Parker Van Dyke hit a 3-pointer from nearly 30 feet to cap off a 22-point comeback for Utah.
“VAN DYKE FOR THE WIN!”
Utah surges back from 22 points down to defeat UCLA!pic.twitter.com/cDLuxRC3pu
— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) February 10, 2019
The Utes scored 61 points in the second half and defeated the Bruins 93-92.
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