On Tuesday night, senior forward Nate Bain helped Stephen F. Austin hand top-ranked Duke their first loss at home to a non-conference opponent in almost 20 years when he made a game-winning layup in overtime to give the Lumberjacks a 85-83 win over the Blue Devils.
MAYHEM š±@SFA_MBB TAKES DOWN NO. 1 DUKE ON A LAST-SECOND LAYUP pic.twitter.com/3VqVyvUbbU
— FOX Sports South (@FOXSportsSouth) November 27, 2019
āIām trying real hard not to get emotional,ā Bain said after the win. āMy family lost a whole lot this year.ā
By Wednesday morning, Bain’s high-profile heroics had led SFA fans and Googlers searching his name to discover a GoFundMe page the school had created to help the Bahama native’sĀ family recover from Hurricane Dorianās wreckage.
Like SFA’s shots from the paint against Duke, the donations began pouring in.
By Wednesday afternoon, Bain’s page had received more than $60,000 in donations, outpacing the goal of $50K.
Prior to the historic win, only about $2,000 had been donated to help Bain’s family replace their home, one of hundreds of thousands that was destroyed when Hurricane Dorian made landfall in September.
While plenty of the donations were from Duke haters, many people who heard about Bain’s story during the game also decided to give his family some pre-Thanksgiving charity.
“What an inspiring story and always love to see an underdog win,” wrote one supporter. “Hoping the same will happen this Saturday when my Wolverines play OSU! Go Blue!”
“You deserved that win dude,” wrote another. “My daughter goes to Duke, so normally I would be pissed about the loss. But you outplayed and out hustled Duke. Enjoy the win and have a great Thanksgiving. Blessings to you and your family!”
And don’t worry. The donations are completely within NCAA guidelines so there’s no danger of Bain facing any sanctions or the money somehow not getting to where it belongs.
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