One-handed Florida walk-on scores his first college basket

The most memorable moment in Florida's 89-65 victory over Jacksonville came long after the outcome had already been decided.

Florida walk-on Zach Hodskins, who was born without the bottom half of his left arm, scored his first college basket with less than a minute to go in the game.

The 6-foot-4 Hodskins appeared briefly in four games last season and five this season, but he missed all five of the shots he had attempted. Hodskins did not waste his chance on Tuesday night, driving for a beautiful spinning layup that had the Florida crowd roaring.

"Really happy for Zach," Florida coach Mike White told reporters in Gainesville. "He's a great young man. Obviously overcoming an unbelievable adversity, he's a very, very likable young man. You could tell by the decibel level in the O-Dome when he scored. It was a fun moment for our team."

It comes as no surprise to anyone who watched Hodskins in high school that he is holding his own against college-level players.

Despite only having one hand, Hodskins averaged 11.8 points per game and shot 37 percent from the floor his senior season at Milton (Ga.) High. He went on a long-distance shooting tear during one eight-game stretch and scored nearly 23 points a night, becoming a nationwide sensation in the process.

Hodskins might have had a better chance to play regularly at a lower-division program, but he chose the challenge of walking on at a Division I program coming off a 2014 Final Four bid. Playing time has been predictably scarce, but moments like his basket Tuesday night surely make the hard work worthwhile.

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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!

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