Duke has Christian Laettner. North Carolina State has Lorenzo Charles.
Tufts has Liz Moynihan.
The senior tri-captain hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer in overtime against the University of New England on Saturday. Advancing the Jumbos to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Div. III tournament with a 57-54 victory, she sent Cousens Gym into a frenzy and set the Hill abuzz. Everyone was talking about the same thing: the shot.
After practice on Monday, as the Jumbos began preparation for Friday's third-round matchup against Castleton State (Cousens Gym, 7 p.m.), Moynihan sat down with the Daily to rewatch and dissect the final moments against UNE. She was joined by head coach Carla Berube and junior teammates Kelsey Morehead and Hayley Kanner, the crucial contributors in the game-winning play.
Together, they attempted to make sense of 4.6 seconds that felt like a blur.
The inbound
The score was 54-54 with 4.6 seconds left in overtime. UNE had just committed a shot clock violation - thanks in part to the screaming and stomping of an electric Cousens crowd. Tufts got the ball on the right sideline, just beyond the top of the key on its own end.
Berube chose not to call a timeout.
"My thought was, calling a timeout might let them set up their defense and really think about how they're [going to] defend it," Berube said.
In fact, the head coach, in her twelfth year at Tufts, didn't even call an inbound play. She left that to her players, who had a blueprint in mind.
"We've been put in a situation like that," Moynihan said. "Five-ish seconds on the clock; inbounds."
"It usually involves some kind of streaker to the middle through the court, looking for the shot," Kanner said.
"And usually there's a screen involved," Berube added.
Kanner stood out of bounds. Morehead stood a few feet from her, fronted by UNE sophomore Sadie DiPierro. Moynihan stood several feet behind Morehead.
Before the referee handed Kanner the ball, Moynihan motioned to Morehead - a subtle thumb-point - to suggest Morehead should come through a screen.
"I had it in my head that I was [going to] set this amazing screen, and she was [going to] sort of just get it and go," Moynihan said.
Kanner had a similar idea.
"I was trying to get the ball to Kelsey," she said. "That was the first instinct."
When the referee tossed Kanner the ball, Morehead darted toward the Jumbos' basket before Moynihan could set an effective screen. Morehead was open for a split second, but two of the three UNE defenders in the area jumped toward her. Then Moynihan's defender stepped up to guard Kanner, leaving Moynihan all alone behind a trio of UNE players.
"I saw Kelsey trying to get open, and I saw her being denied," Moynihan said. "So I actually went up originally to set a screen for her, and then I realized that another girl had come. Kelsey kind of moved and three people went with her."
Moynihan abandoned the screen and focused on getting the ball.
"I was like, 'I'm going the other way,'" she said.
Once again, Kanner and Moynihan were on the same page.
"I saw Liz's defender come up and try and guard the ball," Kanner said. "It was just a pass right over the top."
Kanner tossed a two-handed, overhead pass to the streaking Moynihan, who jumped and pulled it down with her left hand. It was a tough pass to handle, but it placed her in perfect position to move down the court.
"The way I landed, in my head, for some reason I thought there was another defender and I was [going to] get hit by somebody," Moynihan said. "When I actually landed and turned and had room, I was surprised."
The shot
Once Moynihan saw daylight, her instincts kicked in.
"At this point, I actually have to say that all of the training we've done on this court - five seconds left - really sunk in," she said. "I stopped thinking, which is what happens when I make most of my shots. My goal was just to cover as much ground as possible and get the shot off before the buzzer."
Moynihan caught the ball shy of half-court. Then, with three dribbles, she pushed her way to the top of the key: one dribble with her right hand, one big crossover from right to left and a third dribble with her left hand. She jump-stopped in an attempt to square up, but her right foot landed well in front of her left.
To that point, Moynihan - a 32 percent 3-point shooter entering the game - was 0-for-7 on 3-pointers and 0-for-8 from the field. She had played 30 minutes with a wrap around her right hand after jamming her thumb in shoot-around earlier that day.
"I don't like to think that it had a huge impact, but I was 0-for-8 before [the game-winner]," she said. "Most of my shots felt good, so I think it was more a matter of me getting my feet set and having confidence."
On the Jumbos' previous possession, sophomore guard Emma Roberson had been fouled as she drove to the paint and kicked out to Moynihan on the left wing. Moynihan took a 3-pointer and drained it - after the whistle.
"It was actually a relief to see that go through the hoop," she said. "It was kind of like, 'Thank God, there's not just a lid for me here.'"
On the final play, Moynihan reached the top of the key with about two seconds remaining. Roberson was wide open in the right corner, but Moynihan had only one thought: shoot.
"To be honest, I didn't even see her," Moynihan said.
"[Liz is] trained to take that last shot," Berube said. "That [was] probably a good decision. Emma might have been able to catch it and square up and get a good shot, but Liz [was] going towards the hoop."
As Moynihan pulled up to shoot, UNE sophomore Meghan Gribbin caught up to her from behind. Gribbin stuck out her left hand in an attempt to disrupt the shot, but she quickly pulled away to avoid a foul.
"She hit me, and then she kind of stood straight up," Moynihan said. "I remember everyone telling me that everyone was [yelling], 'She got hit! She got hit!'"
"All of our parents did that, yeah," Morehead added.
But there was no whistle. Moynihan thrust a line drive toward the hoop, her left leg kicking back, her right foot landing just inside the 3-point line. As the ball approached the rim, Moynihan fell backward.
"I kind of just had some momentum going backwards, I guess," she said.
"I think it's a flop," Berube added.
It was an off-balance, contested, last-second, line-drive 3-pointer in overtime of the NCAA tournament. No way it would fall.
"I released it, and I think I had this split second of [wondering], 'What if this goes in?'" Moynihan said. "And then I fell to the ground, and I didn't take my eyes off it."
Mayhem
The ball rattled through the hoop as Moynihan lay horizontal on the ground. Pandemonium ensued.
"I saw it go in, and I don't think I've ever gotten up faster in my life," Moynihan said. "I have this thumb, and I was so excited that I just slammed the floor and had immediate pain. But I didn't care."
"I just couldn't believe that went in," Berube said. "I was in shock. I think I hugged [assistant coaches] Colleen [Hart (E '11)] and KB [Kate Barnosky (LA '12)] right after. There was a rush of everybody going on the floor."
"I had to stop to look around to see if that really counted," Morehead said.
When the ball dropped through the net, the buzzer had not yet gone off. The red backboard light didn't flash until the ball hit the ground, meaning there may technically have been a few tenths of a second remaining.
"I thought some time should have maybe been put back on the clock," Berube said. "The clock should stop as soon as the ball goes through the net. But I wasn't [going to] say anything."
The game was over. The Jumbos had won, 57-54. Moynihan's teammates mobbed her around the 3-point line, jumping uncontrollably toward the front row of seats where the track and field team waved cardboard cutouts of their faces.
Moynihan's mom, Jane, joined in the celebration, running from her front-row seat at half-court to the huddle to find her daughter.
"I've never seen her move so fast," Moynihan said, before amending her statement. "Actually, I didn't even see her get there until she tackled me."
Berube raised her arms, hugged her assistants and returned to her signature hands-on-hips pose. The Jumbos jumped back to the bench, shook hands and then continued the celebration in the locker room.
Reflecting on the experience on Monday, Moynihan was quick to deflect praise away from herself and toward her teammates - Kanner, who had 16 points, 17 rebounds and five blocks, and Morehead, who played all 45 minutes and hit the game-tying 3-pointer with 1:18 left in overtime.
"I definitely want to make it clear that this was an entire team effort," Moynihan began. "I'm getting a lot of credit..."
Then her coach cut her off.
"Who's giving you credit?" Berube said, drawing laughs from her players.
A few minutes later, Berube, Kanner and Morehead headed for the locker room. Moynihan lagged behind, collecting her things, and then walked across the court alone. As she walked down the exit ramp, five students descended the Cousens Gym steps to play pickup.
"Nice shot!" one yelled to her.
"Yeah," another agreed. "That was incredible."
"Thank you," Moynihan replied, and then she walked through the door.
