After Harrisburg's Bryan Taylor made a layup with four seconds left in the third quarter against William Penn on Tuesday, the Bearcats quickly inbounded the ball to Jevaughn Murphy on the right side of the floor.
The junior guard dribbled the ball forward, took a glance at the clock and then heaved a shot from about a foot or two behind the half-court line just before the buzzer. He held his follow-through as we calmly watched the ball bounce off the backboard and sink through the net. The shot put the Bearcats up by nine and the crowd went nuts, but Murphy was relatively stoic (see picture above).
Apparently he had good reason to look nonplussed. The senior has made a habit of sinking half-court bombs for the William Penn boys' basketball team. It was just another ho-hum 47-footer for him.
"Murph makes those shots in practice all the time, and nobody will believe me. He hit three like that in our last practice," William Penn coach Troy Sowers said following Tuesday's victory. "And we tell everybody, 'At the end of the quarter, get Murph the ball.'"
Sowers said Murphy has made similar shots in games this season.
"He has three so far this year (in games), not quite that deep, but that's what he does," Sowers said. "I knew it was good. I knew it was good because he makes it in practice. I can't explain it, but he makes it in practice."
I was there and it was SWEET! Let's see another one on Saturday.