Bank shot 3-pointers aren't for gentlemen

Banked-in 3-pointers are crap, slop.

They wouldn’t count in a gentlemen’s game of pool.

Even for you sharpshooters with the deafest touch, banked trifectas are reserved for H-O-R-S-E.

They are not what any player is trying to do during a game. In other words, they are complete luck.

So any of you who had over 146.5 in Sunday’s Rider-Niagara game need to buy the next round to even out your karma.

Here’s what happened:

In a tightly contested MAAC tournament semifinal, Rider took a 71-68 lead on a breakaway dunk with 17 seconds left, making overtime a definite possibility.

On Niagara’s ensuing possession, the Purple Eagles missed consecutive 3-pointers. But Rider was unable corral either rebound and Niagara kept possession with three seconds left.

The Eagles inbounded the ball to Tyrone Lewis. With two Rider defenders attempting to foul him, Lewis heaved a 30-footer, which banked hard off the glass and in for the tying score.

The game eventually went into double overtime, with Niagara pulling out a 93-89 win.

The fluky bad beat was even tougher to swallow for under players for two reasons.

First, how hard is it to intentionally foul someone?

Actually, it’s a little more difficult than you might think. You don’t want to get called for an intentional foul and you definitely don’t want to foul someone in the act of shooting. But, still, reach out and slap the guy and it’s game over.

“We tried to foul him before he could shoot the three but it wasn’t called,” Rider coach Tommy Dempsey said.

Replays showed one of the Rider defenders overran Lewis and whiffed on his attempt to foul. The other defender never got close enough to Lewis to commit the foul.

Secondly, Lewis, the Eagles’ leading scorer, was having his worst game of the season.

He had missed 16 of his 18 shots prior to the desperation 3-pointer. He finished 3 of 21.

“I couldn’t make a layup, I couldn’t buy a jumpshot,” Lewis told the Niagara Gazette.

But he could buy a 30-foot bank shot that cost under players a bad beat.

David Payne writes for Ben Burns

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