WESTMINSTER, Md. — Ashenafi Stuart of the McDaniel College men's basketball team made the shot of a lifetime this past Saturday, drilling a half-court buzzer beater that not only overcame an 18-point deficit but also kept his team's playoff hopes alive with only two games left in the regular season.
WATCH: McDaniel College player hits half-court buzzer beater to keep playoff hopes alive
"This is the kind of shot you sit in bed like, yo God, if I get one of these, I promise you I'll read my Bible more," Stuart said.
The dramatic shot sealed a win for the surging McDaniel College Green Terror, a team that moved into sole possession of sixth place in the Centennial Conference and secured its fourth straight win.
Stuart recalls the moment he hit the shot out of a dream he says he's had since he first picked up a basketball.
"The plan was to cross back to the right, try and get it back to my left hip. Hopefully, I was close enough to where it was a decent shot, but when I shot it, I knew it was on target. I thought it was like backboard, maybe back room, but I don't know, and I just blacked out. It went in, and like initially I was like, where am I gonna go? That was the first thing. I don't, I don't know if I'm gonna run to the scores table, but then I realized I can't go nowhere because everyone's packing me in. But yeah, I mean, it was like if I never hit one ever again," Stuart said.
"I'm, I'm, I'm cool with that, you know," Stuart said.
Head coach Kevin Curley, in his 17th season, witnessed the incredible moment from the sidelines.
"Watching it go through the net, it was kind of surreal at the time, and then. Then to see the guys take off off the bench and the excitement and everything, it was great," Curley said.
Curley says this year's bunch has shown resilience, which is what it'll continue taking if the Green Terror want to make the conference tournament this year, which means winning at least one of their final two games.
"I've been happy like, you know, all year our guys have come ready to play. You know, and, uh, they compete, they play hard, they play together, they're unselfish. Uh, they execute. We're big in the defense, big in the rebounding," Curley said.
Stuart believes the team's chemistry will carry them forward.
"The formula we've been doing, trusting in each other, trusting in, um, what we go out there and do for each other, playing for your brother, I think something like that would get us to at least the goal of the playoffs and propel us wherever else we wanna go," Stuart said.
Up next for the Green Terror, they'll hit the road and travel to Gettysburg to take on the Bullets, one of their rivals. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m.
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