The beauty of sports is that any game — regardless of when it’s played and who’s playing in it — has the potential to instantly become a classic. The world of college basketball provided those in ample supply Wednesday night, as four games ended thanks to buzzer beaters.
On the men’s side, Kentucky, Ole Miss and SMU all picked up dramatic wins on last-second shots. For the women, TCU needed help against unranked WVU, and Marta Suarez delivered.
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And the best thing about all those shots: none of them looked the same. All four teams that won on buzzer beaters picked them up in different ways.
Here’s a look at how each of those four teams picked up the last-second wins on Wednesday.
Kentucky wins as Malachi Moreno recreates legendary shot
In order to win on Wednesday, Kentucky had to channel the ghost of one of its most-hated rivals. With Kentucky trailing by a point and 1.6 seconds to go in regulation, the team needed a miracle to pick up the victory.
With the ball all the way on the other side of the court, the Wildcats needed to complete a near-full-court pass before even getting a shot off. But somehow, everything came together.
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Kentucky freshman center Malachi Moreno came up with the long-range pass, turned around and hit a jumper as time expired to give his team the win.
The entire sequence was eerily reminiscent of Christian Laettner’s shot that propelled Duke to the Final Four in 1992. That shot came against — you guessed it — Kentucky.
Ole Miss upsets No. 21 Georgia with tip-in buzzer-beater
With 6.5 seconds remaining in a tie game in overtime, Ole Miss was looking to create some magic. Senior AJ Storr had the ball, and was hoping to hit a last-second shot to lift his team. But his accuracy was off the mark. The ball bounced off the front of the rim, was aggressively tipped back off the backboard and somehow found its way into the arms of freshman Patton Pinkins with less than a second to go.
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Pinkins quickly threw the ball back up just before time expired … and hit the shot that sent the entire Ole Miss bench into a flurry.
With the win, Ole Miss dispatched No. 21 Georgia. The game, which was evenly matched throughout, featured 16 ties.
SMU needs half-court prayer to sink Virginia Tech
With SMU down by two points and 2.6 seconds left on the clock, things looked dire. But the Mustangs had a plan: get the ball in Boopie Miller’s hands and hope for the best.
Miller didn’t have enough time to fully advance the ball up the court, but that didn’t matter. His half-court desperation heave connected, sending the entire stadium into a frenzy.
TCU relies on Marta Suarez for game-winning three
With 2.8 seconds to go, No. 10 TCU found itself in an unexpected spot, down by two points against an unranked team. Despite the fact that she hadn’t hit a 3-pointer all night, the team put its faith in Marta Suarez to come up clutch.
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She delivered. After receiving the ball, Suarez gave a quick jab step and then fired up the game-winning 3 to give her team the victory.
While Suarez had not connected on a 3 all game, it was only a matter of time. The sharpshooter leads TCU in 3-pointers attempted on the season. She showed why that was the case Wednesday night.
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