It was all over. Hugo (Okla.) High was on the verge of a significant upset in the Oklahoma High School Activities Association state playoffs. They led state power Millwood (Okla.) High, 37-36, with just 2.9 seconds left. All they needed to do was inbounds the ball and dribble out the clock.
The Buffaloes inbounded the ball to star Trey Johnson. What happened next caught everyone, even Johnson himself, off guard.
As first reported by The Oklahoman, instead of dribbling out the clock, a discombobulated Johnson swiveled and scored on his own basket with an uncontested layup. The ball slipped through the net just as the buzzer sounded, giving Millwood the most unlikely of all 38-37 victories and a spot in the Class 3A state semifinals.
“When I saw the kid going that way, I was like, ‘No, he's not. No, he's not ... Oh, yes he is,'” Millwood assistant coach David Samilton told the Oklahoman. "I couldn't believe it.”
The scene that followed was truly surreal, again as described by the Oklahoma City-based newspaper.
Hugo's raucous crowd went still. Millwood's previously disheartened group of fans took a moment for reassurance, before breaking out in a wild celebration fit for this unlikely of an escape job.
As one might expect, Johnson and his teammates were inconsolable with Hugo coach Darnell Shanklin saying that the team’s postgame gathering was “the toughest locker room I've ever had to talk to.”
While there is little time for Millwood to ruminate on its startling turn of luck -- it returns to action on Saturday in the semifinals -- Hugo will have plenty of time to look back and wonder where the gaffe ranks in the pantheon of unfortunate late-game moves.
The good news for Johnson is that the unfortunate, unintentional buzzer beater probably won’t ever surpass Chris Webber’s timeout. The bad news is that there aren’t too many other plays that would go before it.
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