With six seconds left in overtime, senior Joey Marzion sprints down the court and takes the Rustler lead with a layup. Glacier High School gets the ball and quickly inbounds it to Michaels. Down by two points, Glacier has accepted defeat and CMR has already started to feel the thrill of victory. From three quarters length of the court, Glacier junior Bryan Michaels desperately launches a shot in attempt to even come close to the basket. He makes the basket. Glacier defeats CMR in overtime, 62-61.
“I’ve never seen a shot like that. I had already thought ‘we had a great run, but we’re just a little short.’ I wasn’t expecting it to go in. It was one of those ‘wow, I can’t believe what happened’ moments. I’ve never seen that before,” Glacier head coach Mark Harkins said.
CMR head coach John Cislo felt the same shock as Harkins.
“I was in disbelief. I’d let it go. It was a long shot. I didn’t think it had a chance. It’s rare, one of those once-in -a-lifetime shots for a kid,” Cislo said.
According to Harkins, Michaels’ shot is the greatest sports moment he has ever witnessed, because he’s never seen anything like it in his career as a coach or a player.
“We’ve never practiced something like that. At the end of pre-game warm-ups, we’ll all shoot from half court to see if we can make it, and then at the end of the season we see how many we made. But we’ve never tried it from that far,” Harkins said.
Michaels said he couldn’t have even had the opportunity to make the shot if it wasn’t for his teammates.
“It was a really heads up play to inbound the ball with only a few seconds left. It gave us a chance,” Michaels said.
Michaels said that his teammates’ reaction were the best part of his shot.
“It was exciting, but it was fun to see my teammates. They were all really excited,” he said.
According to Cislo, although they lost, he still admires the shot.
“It’s not a conference game. It’s not a playoff game. It’s not a tournament game. You just have to appreciate the shot for what it was,” Cislo said.
Although he was the game’s hero, Michaels remains humble.
“I’ve seen it before in YouTube videos, but never in real life. It was just crazy, a really lucky shot. Extremely lucky. I’d like to say I could do it again, but I don’t think so. The day after the game I went to the gym to shoot around. I tried the shot again, and I air-balled it by a mile. So I wouldn’t say it’s in my near future.”
