Meet JJ Franks: Bishop Ryan student talks about hitting $10K half-court shot

MINOT, N.D. (KMOT) – Call it the shot of a lifetime!

One young fan hit a $10,000 half-court shot at Bishop Ryan. He also made the lay-up, the free throw and the three-point shot.

”You only get one shot at that, so if you miss, you miss,” said 7th grader JJ Franks.

At halftime of Friday’s game, JJ Franks had 25 seconds to make all four shots.

”I was thinking, I’m probably not going to make it, but I’ve just got to try and try and hope it goes in,” said JJ.

Some of the high school players from both teams came out of the locker room to watch what was going on during halftime.

”Just Tom Brady throws it, banks in it. It’s just like, no way. Everyone storms the court, and it was pretty cool,” said Ramsey Walz, a Bishop Ryan High School basketball player.

JJ said that was no 50/50 shot.

”That was one in a million and through the power of God, it went in,” said JJ.

JJ’s mom Marie was across town when her son scored the unlikely shot — her neighbor giving her the updates from the game.

”It was surreal because she said that he was shooting for the $10,000 shot, and I’m like, you know, most kids are trying to get that opportunity, so that was expected. But then she called back and said that he won it and I thought she was kidding me,” said Marie.

JJ plays regularly on the junior high team and said he’s alright with three-pointers, but he rarely makes half-court shots — even in practice.

”The first three I thought he has some basketball talent, but the last shot, really, I think was maybe more a gift from God than it was some natural talent,” said Marie.

So, what does a 7th grader do with $10,000?

“College,” said JJ.

An awesome moment for this young man and his school.

Marie said JJ asked for a couple hundred dollars to decide what to do with.

This was the first year Northern Bottling of Minot sponsored a challenge like this at Bishop Ryan.

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