OKLAHOMA CITY – Tyler Tanner was inches away from March Madness immortality.
After Nebraska's Braden Frager made a driving layup with 2.2 seconds left to give the Cornhuskers a two-point lead over Vanderbilt in a second-round NCAA Tournament thriller on Saturday night, Tanner had no choice but to chuck one toward the basket.
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His heave from beyond half court was on target. The ball crashed off the center of the backboard and dropped halfway below the rim — and then, somehow, it rattled out, and Nebraska escaped with a 74-72 victory.
“My heart sank as that ball went in the hoop and went out,” Nebraska guard Sam Hoiberg said. “I think it took me a half a second to register it didn’t go in, and then I just screamed in elation. I thought it was in.”
Nebraska's Pryce Sandfort summed it up: “I just about died.”
Instead, Nebraska advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time in program history.
Tanner, a 6-foot sophomore, scored 27 points in front of a hostile crowd of scarlet-and-cream-clad Nebraska supporters who made the roughly 6 1/2-hour drive from Lincoln.
And for a split second, he thought he would send them home in stunned silence.
“It hurts pretty bad being that close, especially (in a) hard-fought game,” he said.
Tanner made 9 of 21 field goals and had four steals and four assists.
“That last shot, man, it just took my breath away,” Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg said. “That kid is an unbelievable player. When that thing was up in the air, I was, like, ‘Oh, man, that’s going in.’ Then hit every part of the rim. Thankfully bounced out, and we’re looking forward to next week.”
All because of a ball that went part of the way, but somehow not all the way, through the hoop.
“The hardest thing when you’re in a tournament like this is there’s a side of it with hurt and dejection, and you put everything into it,” Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington said. “We were a play away, an inch away, from being in the Sweet 16.”
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness