Evergreen’s Franks looks back on his amazing shot (with video)

A day later, Robert Franks stood on the Evergreen basketball court just feet from where he put up The Shot.

Or was it The Toss?

The Prayer?

How about, the Blind, Over-The-Shoulder, Oh-God-Please-Go-In?

“I still can’t think how I made that,” Franks said. “It’s crazy.”

By Wednesday, the shot from Tuesday’s night’s Class 4A District 4 boys basketball playoff game between Evergreen and Camas had gone national. It was on the front page of cbssports.com and maxpreps.com. Bleacher Report got it, too.

Sure enough, by late Wednesday, the video went big time.

Yes, ESPN.

Yeah, it was that crazy — that crazy good for the Evergreen Plainsmen.

Trailing by two points with 1.8 seconds remaining, Connor Finnegan threw an inbound pass from one end of the court to the other. The ball was tipped by a Camas defender and bobbled by Franks.

Franks gained enough control of the ball to flip it over his shoulder, behind his head, toward the basket — as he was falling out of bounds.

Swish.

Tie game, 63-63.

Evergreen would go on to win 74-68 in overtime.

Oh, and it was a loser-out playoff game.

“All I could think about was getting a shot up,” Franks said. “Luckily, it went in. I’m thankful to God.”

Evergreen coach Brian Witherspoon said his team had never practiced the play. Not that it would have mattered. Once the ball was tipped, it was ad-lib time.

“No form or nothing,” Franks said. “I just had to get it up somehow. It just happened to work for us.”

Not so much for Camas. The Papermakers did not recover, and Evergreen rolled in overtime.

“I’ve never seen a basketball team play their hearts out more than last night,” said Camas junior James Price on Wednesday, proud of his team’s effort. He added not too many people gave the Papermakers a chance in this game.

Still, losing in such a way can be a punch to the stomach. Price knows this all too well.

Price also plays football for Camas. In December, Camas lost the state championship game when a series of things went against them in the final 65 seconds, including a touchdown on the final play of the game.

“I feel like I’m a little snakebit,” Price acknowledged. “At the same time, that’s the way the ball rolls.”

Gulliford said he had seen “stuff not even as cool as that” on ESPN, so he hoped to get the video on social media so it could go viral.

A Mountain View junior, Gulliford attended Evergreen his freshman and sophomore years and was at the game to support his Evergreen friends. He also wanted to do something for Franks, to try to get the national spotlight on him.

“Why not try?” Gulliford asked.

Gulliford loved being in the gym for this experience.

“As soon as the ball went in the net, it was nuts,” Gulliford said.

The Columbian and other media outlets shared the video Tuesday night. It quickly made local TV. Then the national websites.

There were some who wondered if Franks really did get the shot off on time. It appears the game clock did not start as soon as the ball was tipped.

But Price said he put a stop-clock to the video.

“I think he got it off,” Price said.

Lost in the chaos of the end of regulation, there was another memory maker Tuesday night. Evergreen senior David Martin made a half-court shot, beating the third-quarter horn to pull the Plainsmen to within two points. In a game like this, every point mattered.

“It was incredible,” Martin said. “I’d never done anything like it. I won’t forget it.”

Then, just 20 or so minutes later, Franks’ miracle shot went in.

“That was a life-saving shot,” Martin said. “I couldn’t believe it, honestly.”

For Franks, that shot meant a lot more than just winning a playoff game and gaining his 15 minutes of fame. He was beating himself up because he had just missed an easy shot on Evergreen’s previous possession.

“If I don’t make that shot, then I’m thinking the season’s on me,” Franks said. “It would have been my fault for not making that layup.”

The season continues for Evergreen, which advances to the bi-district tournament.

So does the attention from The Shot.

“Right now, I’m still in shock it went national,” Franks said.