Inbound pass off foe's backside sets up game-winning layup
Instead of running whatever Lafayette women's coach Dianne Nolan drew up in the huddle Wednesday night with the score tied and 25 seconds to play, junior Jamie O'Hare took the risk of freelancing.
O'Hare noticed the Colgate player guarding the inbound pass had her back turned, so she threw the ball off the defender's butt, hopped onto the court and scored a reverse layup that turned out to be the winning basket in her team's 58-56 victory.
"I've done it before, but not to win a game," O'Hare told the Allentown Morning Call. "It was pretty risky, but I couldn't help myself."
The daring play from O'Hare indeed occurs from time to time in college basketball, but seldom does a player have the guts to try it with the game on the line in the final minute. O'Hare executed her attempt perfectly, though she cut it close as to whether she fully reestablished herself inbounds before securing possession of the ball in order to lay it in.
Such a memorable winning basket was the ideal way to cap off a dramatic game. Lafayette trailed by as many as 25 points in the first half and by 23 at halftime before mounting a massive second-half rally fueled by a team-high 18 points from O'Hare.
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
