By: Contact: Alex Falk; Director of Athletic Communications, Digital and Creative Services
JERSEY CITY, N.J. — In case you have been living under a rock for the past 36 hours, you may have heard a thing or two about New Jersey City University basketball. For those few who do not already know, the NJCU Gothic Knights' men's basketball program went viral in the late hours of Wednesday night, Feb. 8, and that momentum continued all the way through the end of the day on Thursday, Feb. 9 ... and will likely continue to be a topic of conversation for weeks, months or even years to come.
If you need a reminder, with 5.2 seconds remaining in regulation at the John J. Moore Athletics and Fitness Center (JMAC), Jersey City had possession of the ball at half court and trailed #23-ranked Rowan University, 71-67, in what had already been a hotly contested New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) clash all night long. Senior co-captain point guard
Jason Battle (Jersey City, N.J./Roselle Catholic) inbounded the ball to the corner and junior forward
Ryan Savoy (Lakewood, N.J./Lakewood) drained a perfect turnaround three-pointer to cut the Profs' lead to just one with 2.8 seconds remaining. Then, on the ensuring baseline inbounds for Rowan, junior guard
Pharoh Allah (Rahway, N.J./St. Genevieve (Calif.)) tipped the pass and the ball found its way back over to Battle. The Jersey City native and NJAC veteran threw up a prayer three-pointer from 45 feet with nearly no time remaining — and banked in the dramatic buzzer-beater
for the victory.
Less than 30 minutes after that play was posted to social media, the Gothic Knights found themselves on SportsCenter's Top 10 Plays as the #1 play of the day. And then, roughly an hour later, ESPN's late night host Scott Van Pelt declared it "The Best Thing he Saw ... and Heard!"
After that, the Gothic Knights' viral moment began.
Even the state of New Jersey's Governor Phil Murphy got in on the commentary. What a night it was for the Gothic Knights.
On Thursday afternoon, NJCU Interim Director of Athletics Robert Cole caught up with the trio of Gothic Knights who combined to make the incredible sequence-turned viral moment in Battle, Savoy and Allah.
