Cathedral School’s Sam Mosby may never know the odds of making a game-winning full-court shot, but as far as he’s concerned it’ll never happen again.
At the Green Wave’s junior varsity basketball game at Delta Charter last Tuesday, Mosby took a chance by overhanding the basketball from one end of the court to the other — and to his and everyone else’s surprise, it went in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH7vH0lIWa8
“Knowing that I’ll never do that again, it was crazy. I especially don’t think I’ll ever do it again with those chances,” Mosby said. “I don’t think the time and everything will be right. Maybe a half-court shot, but never that again.”
Mosby — a freshman — was left with the ball in his hands with just 1.6 seconds remaining in the game. The Green Wave was trailing by one point, 24-23.
Seconds earlier, Mosby had thought he had lost the game for his team.
“I had just come down and shot a floater, but it hit the back of the backboard and bounced off. I thought the game was over,” he said.
To Mosby’s luck, Cathedral fouled one of Delta Charter’s post players and he missed the ensuing free throw. Fellow Cathedral freshman Jones Richardson then rebounded the miss and attempted to call a time out, but the Green Wave didn’t have one.
“I tried to call a timeout because the ref told me I had one,” Richardson said. “I got kind of frustrated so I just tossed it to Sam. I started walking to the bench because I didn’t think he was going to throw it that far.
“I realized about when it crossed the free throw line on the other side of the court, it had a chance to go in.”
And of course, it did.
“I watched it fly through the air, and the whole place went silent,” Mosby said. “I saw it went in and my mouth just dropped. Everybody just came and picked me up.”
Among those who rushed to congratulate Mosby was Cathedral coach Taylor Strahan.
In his second year coaching, Strahan was equally amazed by the shot.
“It was a miracle. There’s no other way to describe it,” he said. “I was hoping he was passing it down the court to one of our players that was going down there, but I’m not sure we would have had the time for it. Thank goodness it went in.
“I didn’t have any control over what happened. When they ran down, I went with them. It was one of those out-of-body experiences where you can’t believe it, but there it was.”
Mosby’s miracle shot gave his team the victory, 26-24, and a win for its first game of the year.
Though Mosby doesn’t think he’ll ever make such an astounding basket again in his life, he is excited about what the future holds.
“I could sit here and try to make it time after time, but I know I probably never would,” he said. “I’m pretty excited because I think we have a good shot at the district championship this year.”
Cathedral will be back in action tonight when it hosts St. Aloysius with games beginning at 4 p.m.