Noah Lee, a senior operations and knowledge administration main at UMass Amherst, was casually watching the Massachusetts Minutewomen tackle the St. Bonaventure Bonnies on Wednesday evening earlier than the shot occurred.
Lee was sitting within the stands when he was approached by a promoter for Odds On Promotions, an organization specializing in sports activities halftime contests. The promoter requested Lee if he needed to take part in a halftime problem requiring him to make a handful of photographs for $10,000 in prize cash.
Shortly after the halftime buzzer sounded with Massachusetts’ 36-26 lead, Lee took the court docket with the duty of sinking 4 straight photographs in 30 seconds: a layup, a free throw, a 3-pointer and a half-court shot.
MY FRIEND JUST DID THIS FOR $10k AT THE @UMassWBB GAME!!!#SCtop10 pic.twitter.com/czpu4jSNXf
— Josh Schreiber (@Jschreiber272) February 6, 2025
Because the promoter gave Lee the countdown to start, Lee took one dribble and completed the layup. He swished the free throw earlier than flattening the college-level 3-pointer.
“Noah for 3!” the promoter mentioned earlier than Lee took a stab on the half-court shot.
Lee took two dribbles earlier than sinking it to seemingly win the competition. The group on the Mullins Middle roared in celebration.
“[The] half-court shot, [I] put it up and realized midair, like, ‘Wow, that has an opportunity,'” Lee told the Daily Collegian. “When it went in, it was fairly surreal. … It was a ton of enjoyable within the second.”
After apparently profitable the competition, he acquired a kind to signal, acknowledging that he understood the foundations. A consultant of the Massachusetts athletic division advised Lee that the promotion and prize insurance coverage firm would evaluate his photographs, stating that it will make the ultimate name and that it was strict concerning the foot placement on the half-court shot.
On Thursday, Lee acquired an electronic mail from a Massachusetts athletic division consultant saying that the corporate concluded that his foot was on the road for the half-court shot and that he would not obtain the prize cash.
Nonetheless, the division is making an attempt to do proper by Lee.
Although the choice did not come from UMass, the athletic division needed to make sure Lee was rewarded for sinking all 4 photographs. UMass offered Lee suite and courtside tickets for a house basketball sport, $100 reward playing cards for concessions on the Mullins Middle, and a swag bag of UMass gear. The college additionally supplied him one other alternative to partake in a future capturing contest for $1,000. Massachusetts’ NIL collective even supplied Lee one other likelihood to sink only a half-court shot for $10,000 money subsequent Wednesday in the course of the Massachusetts Minutemen‘s sport in opposition to the Davidson Wildcats.
On Friday, UMass athletic director Ryan Bamford said the college is engaged on getting Lee the $10,000 reward. It is making an attempt to entry the prize cash by way of the insurance coverage firm. But when the college cannot get a “good end result,” Bamford mentioned, the college can pay Lee immediately.
The college will reward Lee at one other Massachusetts girls’s basketball sport, Bamford added.
The Minutewomen are 13-10 on the season and using a four-game profitable streak.
