HS rivalry game ends with miraculous steal and buzzer-beating heave in final 3 seconds
There’s the walk-off hit in baseball, the last-second field goal or Hail Mary pass in football, but nothing quite matches the thrill of a basketball buzzer-beater.
And it really doesn’t matter if it’s in your kid’s rec league, high school, college or the NBA — the last-second shot for the win is exciting on any level.
Take for example, the thrilling finish to a high school game in St. Charles, Illinois, between crosstown rivals St. Charles East and St. Charles North.
After East sank two free throws to tie the game at 50 with 3.3 seconds left, North took the ball out of bounds looking to win it with a buzzer-beater.
But it didn’t quite turn out that way.
A player from St. Charles North threw a baseball pass three quarters of the court toward teammate Zach Ludwig, but the pass was batted away by one the North defenders.
The ball bounced away from Ludwig, and caromed the other way back up the court.
St. Charles’ North forward Justin Hardy, who was guarding the inbounds pass, was now running down the court to play defense. But the batted ball came toward him.
Hardy picked it up, turned, and fired from just beyond the three-point arc and it splashed through the net to give North a 53-50 win as time expired.
Here’s a look at it from a different angle.
No. Words. East WINS 53-50. pic.twitter.com/zFicdC93Js
— Jake Bartelson (@JakeBartelson) January 13, 2018
Players and fans rushed the court to mob Hardy after the game winner.
“It was in my hands. I didn’t know the time on the clock. I just figured I had to turn and shoot,” Hardy told the Kane County Chronicle after the game. “It’s a special feeling when you sell out a gym, and the game ends like that against your archrivals.”
And apparently, this is quite a rivalry. The last three years, the games have been decided by buzzer-beaters, according to the Chronicle.
Who doesn’t like a good buzzer-beater?
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