Hopkins Player Awed By 'Lucky' Shot
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I've been looking for video of this but haven't found it yet.
Mar 21, 2005 8:24 am US/Central
Hopkins, Minn. (WCCO) A Hopkins sophomore made a shot for the ages Sunday night during his team's state championship final against Eastview.
With his team down by two points and only seconds left in the first overtime, Blake Hoffarber fell flat on his back, found the ball in his hands and drilled a buzzer-beating basket to make the tie.
The Hopkins Royals went on to defeat the Eastview Lightning 71-60 in the second overtime and win the Class 4A State Championship.
Even after watching the shot back on tape, Hoffarber still can't believe he made it.
"I knew there were only 2.5 seconds left," Hoffarber said. "I got the ball in my hands and threw it up as quick as possible. It went in. I was more surprised than the rest of the crowd, I think.
"I think it was pretty lucky. I mean, I fell on the floor and my hands are going back and the ball fell in my hands, so I just shot the ball. I think it was really, really lucky."
Hoffarber's skill was a huge factor throughout the game, as he hit a key three-pointer in the fourth quarter and had 25 points total.
"He was on fire," said Adam Hoffarber, his brother. "Granted, I'm biased. To say I’m proud would be the world's biggest understatement."
The sophomore, who said he'd like to play professionally someday, wished the spotlight would shine more on his teammates than on himself.
"It makes me feel great, but it makes me feel better that our team won the state title, and I helped my team," Hoffarber said. "I couldn't have done it without my teammates."
(WCCO)
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Posted on Mon, Mar. 21, 2005
Flying high by seat of his pants
Hopkins guard's shot the stuff of legends
BY TIM LEIGHTON
Pioneer Press
SOURCE
Life after his rump shot was a state of dizzying confusion Sunday afternoon for Blake Hoffarber. The 6-foot-3 sophomore guard from Hopkins, as well as others, remained baffled at the uncanny, not to mention improbable, basket he made late Saturday night that propelled him into legendary status at the Minnesota boys basketball state tournament.
Hoffarber, with his feet in the air, made a two-point basket while sitting on the three-point line with 0.2 seconds remaining in overtime. Hoffarber short-circuited Eastview's premature championship celebration and forced a second overtime in Hopkins' eventual 71-60 victory in the Class AAAA title game at Target Center.
His two-handed heave from over his head has made national television highlight shows. Many believe his shot eclipses the game-winning bomb that Minneapolis North's Khalid El-Amin made in the 1996 quarterfinals against St. Thomas Academy.
Hoffarber, who was besieged by telephone calls and media requests for much of Sunday, planned to watch footage of the play later in the day at a neighbor's home in Minnetonka if he could carve out the time. He tried to sleep in late Sunday, but that never happened because of his newfound fame, and he had summer AAU tryouts Sunday afternoon.
"I am anxious to see it,'' Hoffarber said. "I'm sure I will be even more stunned than I already am about the whole thing. That's not a shot you practice.''
Hoffarber, who also hit a dramatic, longer-than-NBA-range three-pointer to force the first overtime, finished with 25 points in leading the Royals to their second Class AAAA championship since 2002.
He is uneasy with all the attention.
"It has been fun, but it is just one shot,'' Hoffarber said. "If the team hadn't done all the hard work to get there, that shot would have never happened.''
But it did happen late Saturday, and it left the crowd of 10,166 stunned because of the dramatic turn of events.
Hopkins (31-1) apparently was the runner-up after Darren Kent, Eastview's versatile 6-foot-10 center, made an athletic basket in the closing seconds of the first overtime to give the Lightning a 58-56 lead. He finished with 20 points. The final horn sounded, and Eastview (27-5) assumed it had won. But Hopkins had called a timeout immediately after Kent's basket.
After lengthy debate between officials and coaches, 2.5 seconds were restored to the game clock. Things were still looking dicey for the Royals, who had to travel the length of the court.
"I guess you are hoping for a basket, but you are resigning yourself to the fact, that hey, we had a good season and it looks like we are going to finish second,'' said Bruce Hoffarber, Blake's father. "Everything was so emotional.''
It became even more so.
On the inbounds, Hopkins guard Andrew Henke did his best Daunte Culpepper impersonation and threw a pass to the opposite free-throw line. The curving pass was intended for Arden Skoglund, Hopkins' 6-10 center, who was supposed to relay the ball to Hoffarber for a three-pointer to win or to Bernell Benjamin for a two-pointer to tie. Skoglund, however, got swallowed up in a mass of bodies.
With precious seconds ticking away , Benjamin dove for the ball and poked it ahead to Hoffarber, who was scrambling to help in anyway possible.
"I knew I had to shoot right away; 2.5 seconds isn't that long,'' Hoffarber said. "My adrenaline was really going. I tossed it up there with everything I could. I thought it was on line but would be short. I knew it was close (to time running out).''
Despite Eastview's protestations, the center official immediately signaled that the shot had counted. Hopkins coach Ken Novak Jr., while pleased with the basket, pushed that it should have been counted as a three-pointer.
"It all happened so quickly,'' said Novak, Hoffarber's uncle. "The officials didn't immediately know (if it was a three) because of the way his body was stretched and his feet were up. It was hard. It was against what I lobbied for, but it was the correct call.''
With renewed life, Hopkins outscored Eastview 13-2 in the second overtime.
Hoffarber and his teammates were greeted with a frenzied pep fest at the school's Lindbergh Center shortly after the game.
"It was absolutely nuts,'' Bruce Hoffarber said. "Blake has kept a calm demeanor.''
Hoffarber continues to take the team approach.
"I think the fans and parents were happy for all of us, not just me,'' Hoffarber said.
Will he be the big man on campus today when school resumes?
"I'm sure it will be a fun day,'' he said. "A lot of people will want to talk to me, but hopefully, it will be a team thing.''
As of early Sunday evening, Novak hadn't seen a tape of Hoffarber's play, either.
"The more I am hearing about it, the more I want to see it,'' Novak said.
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