When Hudsonville High School (Mich.) found itself trailing by two points with only 1.5 seconds left on Monday night, it looked as if their hopes for advancing to the Regional Title game had all but disappeared. They had just about enough time left on the clock for a catch-and-shoot, but considering they were inbounding the ball from their own baseline the task seemed impossible.
Unless, of course, the Eagles could replicate one of the most famous sports plays in history. As you can see from the video above, Hudsonville was able to do exactly that and force overtime (score in the video is wrong) against the Forest Hills Northern Huskies. They pulled off Duke’s legendary Christian Laettner play to perfection. Brent Hibbits launched the ball 75 feet to Cody Stuive, who turned around and nailed the jumper.
“I just freaked out,” Stuive told FOX 17 in Michigan. “I just ran to the bench and was giving people hugs. Then I realized that now we have to win in overtime.”
It wasn’t all luck, either. Hudsonville head coach Eric Elliot called a timeout just before the play to make sure his players were on the same page as him.
“At that point you’re thinking with one-and-a-half seconds it doesn’t sound like a lot of time,” said Elliott. “In basketball-talk, you catch and you got one dribble. So it was just how do we get it into our guy’s hands within the three-point line so we can get a clean shot up.”
If we’ve learned anything from shots like this, this and the one that Hudsonville pulled off, it’s that some of the best buzzer-beaters come at the high school level. Perhaps the most amazing part about the feat was that the Eagles were able to refocus and win the game in overtime. Hudsonville will take on Muskedon for the Regional Title on Wednesday night.
H/T The Big Lead
