North Carolina girl sinks half-court heave to win state championship game

Alex Putman made her only field goal of the state championship game a memorable one.

The Kernersville (N.C.) Bishop McGuinness junior guard's desperation half-court heave as time expired broke a 58-58 tie to deliver the Villains their ninth straight North Carolina Class 1A state championship. The school's athletic department shared two angles of the remarkable shot on its Twitter account.

The bucket marked Putman's lone make in the 61-58 win over Williamston (N.C.) Riverside. She entered the game averaging 5.0 points and shooting 25 percent from 3-point range, according to MaxPreps.

"The play was supposed to go to anyone but Alex," Bishop McGuinness coach Brian Robinson told HighSchoolOT.com of the game's final five seconds. "She was supposed to take the ball out. It ended up in her hands. Sometimes, things like that happen. It was an amazing shot."

Riverside's Kayla Jones missed a pair of free throws that could have given her team a lead and threatened Bishop McGuinness' remarkable string of consecutive state titles, according to the YouTube synopsis provided by the Bishop McGuinness athletic department. Not that it mattered, since Putman corraled the second miss, dribbled to mid-court and let it fly for a three-point victory.

"I saw that it was on line, but I didn't think it would go in," Putman added in the HighSchoolOT.com game story. "I don't even think I saw it go through."

It's a good thing someone was there to capture it on tape.