When Hurricane Dorian slammed into the Bahamas at the beginning of September, Stephen F. Austin forward Nathan Bain sat and waited to hear how his home country and his family held up. Not only did the Bain family lose most of their valuables, Nathan's father, a minister, also saw his church suffer severe damage.
A GoFundMe was set up for Nathan and his family after the storm tore apart the Bahamas. The fundraiser had about $3,000 raised, according to Bain, and then college basketball did that thing that it does — the unimaginable.
🚨 UPSET ALERT 🚨
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) November 27, 2019
Stephen F. Austin ends No. 1 Duke’s 150-straight non-conference home game win streak! #AxeEm pic.twitter.com/6HkBavqEB0
On the night of Nov. 26, unranked Stephen F. Austin pulled one of the biggest upsets of the decade beating No. 1 Duke 85-83 at the buzzer. That upset and buzzer-beater came at the hands at none-other than Nathan Bain.
"We knew if we could keep it close we could come out on top," Bain told Andy Katz on this week's episode of the March Madness 365 podcast about his last-second layup. "When it's your time when you're in the right position you make the play."
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Since Bain made the layup that handed Duke their first non-conference home-loss to an unranked opponent in over 30 years, Stephen F. Austin's fundraiser for the Bain family has exploded.
Thanks to Bain's late-game heroics and the circulation of his story throughout the news, the amount of money the GoFundMe has raised has increased 50-fold, to just under $150,000, and Bain's story has reached a nationwide audience.
"They've been in disbelief about how much they know they'll be able to help other people," Bain said of his family who will be receiving the donations. "It's bigger than basketball, the shot didn't really matter, it's what happened afterward."
Bain and his family credit God for the miraculous events that have unfolded in the past couple of weeks, as Nathan remembered what it was like being in the United States while his home country suffered from one of the most dangerous storms in modern history.
Thanks for coming out to Nac @NewDay and helping tell our story @JohnBerman!
— SFA Men’s Basketball (@SFA_MBB) November 28, 2019
“I looked towards the bench and saw my teammates running at me and in that moment I knew.”
- @_LetMeBe_23 #RaiseTheAxe#AxeEm
pic.twitter.com/1lteRzHz7m
"It was unrecognizable. From what it was just moments before to when the hurricane just sat on top of both of those islands," Bain told Andy Katz about the two islands of Great Abaco and Grand Bahama. "It was unspeakable devastation. Just looking at pictures I can't even imagine just being there and experiencing it and looking at your home get destroyed."
The direction is looking up for the Bain family and the entire community that was effected by the storm, Bain told TMZ Sports. The Stephen F. Austin forward said most of the money raised through the GoFundMe will be used to help the community he grew up in.
Just like Bain's GoFundMe, Stephen F. Austin's basketball team has been on an upward trajectory since upsetting Duke. The Lumberjacks avoided what Bain said could be a "Duke hangover" and have beaten Arkansas State and Arlington Baptist. They'll get a shot at an SEC opponent in Alabama at 8 p.m. ET on Dec. 6.
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Bain's interview with Katz begins at about the 7:15 mark and covers all of these topics and more. This week's edition of the March Madness 365 podcast also features interviews with West Virginia's Bob Huggins and ESPN analyst Jimmy Dykes.
The March Madness 365 podcast is a weekly podcast covering all things college basketball. You can listen and subscribe to the podcast here, on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher.
