A high school basketball game in Maine became the talk of social media as the Thornton Academy Trojans won in controversial fashion against the Bonny Eagle Scots. The game was a Class AA South boys’ semifinal contest that ended with a buzzer-beater deemed “the craziest 20.9 seconds in Maine basketball history” on Twitter.
At the end of the game, the Trojans were leading 47-45 when the Scots scored a three-pointer, giving them a 48-47 lead. The Trojans were awarded an and-one on a contested shot, putting them in the lead with 8.8 seconds left. The Scots regained the lead with 1.3 seconds remaining on a put-back attempt, a foul, and a made free throw, making it a 51-50 game.
The final seconds of the game were filled with drama. On the previous drive, which gave Bonny Eagle the lead, the clock on the WHOU.live score bug was erratic, but it appeared that Thornton Academy had 1.3 seconds left for a last-chance heave.
Thornton Academy made a long inbounds pass, caught about 30 feet from the rim. Following a single dribble, the shot was released just above the free-throw line. The red light signaling the end of the fourth quarter went off before the ball was in the air. Thus, according to the clock in the arena, the shot should’ve been invalid.
However, the ball went up as the game clock on the actual broadcast read 0.2 seconds, and the shot appeared to go up just before time expired on the live stream, but not in the arena. It was clear that the shot shouldn’t have counted, but Thornton Academy won 52-51.
Despite the controversy, Thornton Academy went on to win the state championship over the weekend, defeating South Portland 82-61.
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