The play of the day! ESPN ranks James Reese’s half-court shot for Gamecocks No. 1
Most South Carolina fans have likely seen the shot by now.
On Tuesday night, USC guard James Reese shocked the Ole Miss Rebels with a buzzer-beating half-court 3-pointer that sealed a 77-74 overtime road win.
Now, the rest of the country can see it, too. Reese’s last-ditch heave across the court earned the No. 1 play on the latest ESPN SportsCenter Top 10 plays list — an honor that goes to the very best plays from the day.
ESPN estimated the shot distance as 41 feet.
The shot was improbable, to say the least. Only two seconds remained in the overtime period, and guard Jermaine Couisnard was tasked with inbounding the ball from the other end of the court. Couisnard threw the ball near the half-court line, and in one fluid motion, Reese caught it and released just inside half-court as time expired. The ball banked off the backboard, and the Gamecocks came rushing onto the court as the ball fell through the cylinder.
Head coach Frank Martin said after the game it’s the kind of shot that “goes in once every 10 years.”
The shot might’ve meant as much to USC’s season as it did to the game. With just five regular-season contests remaining, the Gamecocks (15-10, 6-7 SEC) need every win they can get to claw into the postseason picture.
A former standout at A.C. Flora High School in Columbia who transferred to the Gamecocks from North Texas, Reese has been a steady perimeter shooter and team leader in his first year with his hometown USC team, averaging 10.4 points per game.
“I work on half-court shots literally every day,” Reese said after his buzzer-beater. “And I just happened to be in that position and I just shot it the way we were shooting every day, and it went in.
“The emotions that I felt, it was just crazy, because I honestly was thinking about it right before ... we went into overtime. I was just thinking somebody’s gonna have to make a big shot.”
This story was originally published February 16, 2022 at 8:47 AM with the headline "The play of the day! ESPN ranks James Reese’s half-court shot for Gamecocks No. 1."
