James Madison Men's Basketball Stuns Kent State With A Last-Minute Comeback For The Ages

The James Madison Dukes men’s basketball team pulled off the most remarkable comeback of the young season. 

With 3.8 seconds remaining in a game against Kent State, Golden Flashes forward Chris Payton Jr. hit a pair of free throws to put his squad up 89-84. The crowd started chanting “Warm the busses!,” thinking Kent State had it in the bag.

A perfectly reasonable assumption! How many times can a team say it erased a five-point deficit with less than four seconds on the clock?

But the fans spoke too soon.

Dukes guard Noah Freidel caught a full-court pass and sank a three. However, only 1.2 seconds remained, so that would seem inconsequential if Kent State just inbounded the ball and killed time.

But that never happened. Kent State guard Mike Bekelja committed an obvious offensive foul before his team could inbound.

So now, Kent State has to defend in its own half. The pressure mounted, but once again, Kent State needed a simple recipe to succeed. 

Just defend without fouling, and don’t let anyone get open. Easy enough, right?

Well, sort of.

Freidel played the hero again after curling around a screen for a wide-open layup. It was the worst help-side defense in a clutch situation I have ever seen. How Freidel got open by roughly 10 feet for the inbound pass is beyond me (you’ll see in the following video).

That tied the game at 89 apiece. With all the momentum on their side, JMU finished the deal by winning 113-108 in overtime.

Here’s a recap of the absolutely wild sequence.

James Madison Did The Unthinkable With Less Than A Minute, Just Like A Few Other Teams In Years Past

James Madison’s effort hearkened back to some of the great last-minute comebacks in the sport’s history.

On February 12, 2005, UNLV trailed San Diego State 87-71 with 20 seconds to play. Rebels guard Odarty Blankson started the rally by scoring five points in less than seven seconds to cut the deficit in half. Thanks to another three by Jerel Blassingame and poor free-throw shooting by the Aztecs, the deficit whittled down to three. Curtis Terry hit a desperation three-pointer, and sent the game to extra time. UNLV would leave with a 93-91 win.

But perhaps the greatest minute-or-less comeback ever belongs to the Texas A&M Aggies in 2016. Trailing the Northern Iowa Panthers by 12 with 44.3 seconds left, the Aggies (led by Alex Caruso, who still had hair at this point) somehow forced overtime in the Round of 32.

I could write about the heads-up defense, clutch shooting, and all-out effort that led to the Aggies’ 92-88 win in 2OT. but I’ll let you see this one for yourself, because I’m still not sure how this happened, even seven years later. There’s a reason why they call this tournament “March Madness.”

It’s hard not to love college basketball for these stories and so many others. James Madison’s win is just another reminder of why college basketball is the best version of the sport.