Upon review, botched dunk/full-court Hail Mary three/overtime defeat is the worst way to lose a basketball game

Quick, think of the most heartbreaking way your high school basketball team could have lost a game. Botching a game-changing turnover? Clanking a game-sealing dunk off the rim? Giving up a full-court buzzer beater?

Or how about all three?

Pour one out for Jacksonville’s Parker High School, who took a 44-41 lead into the final moments of a showdown against 5-16 Fletcher, earned a key steal with fewer than 10 seconds on the clock, and then watched everything crumble into dust like an antique flan. Parker’s inbounds steal gave way to a breakaway dunk that would have sealed the game with a five-point lead. Instead, the ball rattled off seemingly every part of the rim before bouncing back to the Senators.

Then, two blinks before the final buzzer sounded, one of the extras from Teen Wolf (not Chubby) heaved a full-court prayer that never got more than 11 feet off the ground and yet somehow rattled home to tie the game at 44.

I mean...

Fletcher would ride that momentum to a 53-51 overtime win and their sixth victory of the season. Parker would head back to their bus trying to figure out exactly what happened and whether. The Braves are now 8-11 on the year, and 0-1 in games decided by the oscillating whims of lesser trickster gods.