Buzzer beater stuns No. 1 recruit Jahlil Okafor’s team at Chicago Elite Classic
Trailing top-ranked senior recruit Jahlil Okafor's Whitney Young High (Chicago, Ill.) squad for almost the entire second half of a Chicago Elite Classic contest, St. John Bosco High (Bellflower, Calif.) was in danger of falling to 2-3 after starting the season in just about every major media outlet's national rankings.
Enter Daniel Hamilton, another top-20 national recruit headed to UConn next fall.
In the final seconds of a 59-59 game, Hamilton took an inbounds pass at midcourt and dribbled to the top of the key, where Okafor's 6-foot-10, 270-pound frame provided a formidable double-team, but St. John Bosco's five-star senior shooting guard drained a drifting 3-pointer to stun perennial national powerhouse Whitney Young in Chicago.
YouTube user Michael Kosman caught the shot from a floor-level angle at UIC, wonderfully capturing the dichotomy of Hamilton's celebration and Okafor's agony.
"That’s exactly how we drew this one up," St. John Bosco coach Derrick Taylor joked to the Chicago Sun-Times. "Come to Chicago and beat Whitney Young on a buzzer beater. Seriously, we knew Hamilton could do the job. We are supremely confident in him."
"I love it," added Hamilton, whose buzzer-beating triple gave him 17 points on the night. "I wait for that moment, it’s what I live for."
Okafor finished with 24 points on 13 shots to go along with 12 rebounds in his season debut, but his unanimous top-10 ranked team is now 0-1 on the season.
Meanwhile, after losing two straight games to close out Union High's (Redondo, Calif.) annual Pacific Shores Tournament, St. John Bosco avoided losing three straight games for the first time in five seasons.
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