ST. LOUIS - Gets pass. Takes one dribble. Makes a 3-pointer. Sends game to overtime.
It happens all the time throughout the course of a basketball season.
No big deal, right?
Wrong.
Austin Gastineau of Ava High School in southwestern Missouri made an incredible 79-foot shot from the opposite free-throw line to force a third overtime against Warsaw High School in the 3rd place game of the Conway Invitational Tournament in southern Missouri.
It wasn't the only clutch shot Gastineau made on the evening, as he also sank a pair of free throws at the end of the first overtime to force a second OT.
Oh yeah, and he also scored 55 points.
What is truly amazing about this shot is not only the fact that Gastineau sank it from the opposite foul line, but that he essentially double-pumped the shot before he put it up. This wasn't a baseball throw. He didn't wind up and give it a toss like Tom Brady. Nope. Total basketball play, albeit shot from the hip.
Let's break down the video.
As Warsaw's Brad Jelinek is at the line for a pair of free throws, which he sinks, pushing the Warsaw lead to 3 with 2.3 seconds left in the second overtime, Warsaw head coach Jared Wallace is instructing his players to play good defense on the inbounds pass. Hands up, he implores from the bench. Then, he rubs the back of his head while pleading with his players to get a man defending the inbounds pass. It was like he already knew what was going to happen.
Gastineau catches the inbounds pass, takes one dribble and gives it the old heave-ho.
Just as the shot is about to hit the bottom of the net, a player from Warsaw jumps and makes some sort of desperate attempt to block the shot.
No dice. But good job, good effort!
Ball goes in. Crowd goes wild. Fist pumps galore.
Sadly, draining two clutch free throws, scoring 55 points and making the shot of a lifetime was all for naught as Austin Gastineau and the Ava team eventually lost in the third overtime 101-96 in what surely will be remembered as a Conway Invitational classic.
