As the clock ticked down from one minute, Ohio University alumnus Adam Beatrice grabbed one of the dozen basketballs sitting at half court and heaved it toward the basket.
Swish
But before the ball hit the bottom of the net, Beatrice had grabbed another ball and put up another shot.
Swish.
By the time the final buzzer sounded and the clock struck zero, Beatrice had thrown up a tiring 24 shots from a distance of 47 feet. And, by draining 10 of those shots, Beatrice earned something special to accompany his fatigued arms — a Guinness World Record.
Though not yet confirmed by Guinness officials, Beatrice’s feat tops the current world record for seven half-court shots in one minute, which was set last April by Charlie Vernon in Pullman, Wash.
Beatrice, who studied accounting and MIS at OU and graduated in June 2009, said he first got the idea of challenging the record when he saw video of someone else’s attempt on ESPN.
“I’ve always had a knack for hitting stupid basketball shots, so I thought this was something that I could conceivably do,” he said.
Beatrice played basketball for Troy Christian High School, where he said he would often joke with his coach about drawing up trick plays.
With the idea of attempting the record fresh in his head, Beatrice took a road trip to Lipscomb University, a small private university near Nashville, Tenn., to visit a friend last weekend.
That friend happened to work for Lipscomb’s basketball team and had access to the university’s basketball court, scoreboard and camera equipment.
“We always used to do trick shots,” said Ryan Daly, who volunteered to track down rebounds during the attempt.
Daly and Beatrice hit the court Friday night to see if breaking the record was realistic. And when Beatrice nailed nine shots in a run through, the duo knew it had to make an official attempt.
Armed with a video camera, a scoreboard and a handful of witnesses, Beatrice and Daly took the court Sunday morning.
Beatrice came up short on his first few attempts, but the third time was a charm.
“He made his first four and once he got into his grove it looked like he was taking a jumper,” Daly said.
Even after making 10 shots, Beatrice insisted on attempting to top his own record four more times before finally calling it a quits.
“I was convinced I could hit 13,” Beatrice said. “I’m still pretty sore from it.”
The record will not become official until the Guinness World Records office reviews the video footage and witness statements.
But official record or not, Beatrice’s feat caught the eye of OU’s top basketball guru.
“Amazing,” said Ohio men’s basketball coach John Groce after seeing the video of Beatrice’s shooting. “If you need to run a play for a half-court shot then Adam Beatrice is your guy!”
wl372808@ohiou.edu
@ThePostSports
