iStock(NACODOCHES, Texas) — A lot of people in the country strongly dislike Duke University men’s basketball, it was just never easy to quantify in monetary form. Now, we know it’s at least $100,000.Of course, there’s some goodwill for Stephen F. Austin University forward Nate Bain, as well, whose fundraiser to help out his family in the wake of Hurricane Dorian crossed into six digits on Wednesday night — about 24 hours after he hit a game-winning shot against Duke.More than a few of those donating to the cause celebrated the downfall of Duke in the comments.Go back to Tuesday night and Stephen F. Austin’s game against Duke. Stephen F. Austin, a little-known public school in Nacogdoches, Texas, faced perennial power Duke, currently the No. 1 team in the country, in what was expected to be an easy win for the Blue Devils.Power schools often schedule so-called “cupcakes” early in the season to get ready for the conference schedule and eventually the postseason.The Blue Devils were 28-point favorites against the Lumberjacks — who last visited the NCAA tournament in 2016 — and yet the two teams were tied 81-81 heading into overtime at the always daunting Cameron Indoor Stadium. Duke had won 150 straight games against nonconference opponents at their home court.But Bain, a senior, was undaunted. Duke turned the ball over with less than 10 seconds left, and Bain ended up taking the ball the length of the court with seconds left on the clock and hitting the game-winning layup as time expired.Bain is a native of the Bahamas, which was slammed hard by Hurricane Dorian on Sept. 1. More than 60 people were killed in the Bahamas, and while Bain’s family was fine, his house was destroyed and his church was as well. Bain’s father is the minister at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Freeport.The fundraiser was created on GoFundMe on Sept. 17 — but it curiously spiked Tuesday night. And even more on Wednesday. It’s likely a game-winning basket had something to do with that.”I was just in disbelief at what basketball had done for my family,” Bain told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “It was truly a blessing.”Nearly 3,000 people have donated to the campaign, which is officially run by the Stephen F. Austin Athletics Department.It was the second-most popular campaign on the website, a spokesperson for GoFundMe said Wednesday afternoon.Copyright © 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
