3
5
During Indiana's basketball game with Saint Mary's in the NCAA Tournament Thursday night, the ball got stuck between the backboard and shot clock early in the second half, and there was a problem getting it down.
Saint Mary's center Matthias Tass, who's 6-foot-10, couldn't reach it with the short mop stick, and Indiana's Trayce Jackson-Davis thought about it, but couldn't reach it either.
Referee Kelly Pfeifer grabbed a chair, but he couldn't reach it, either, with the short mop handle. Tass tried stepping up on a not-so-secure folding chair, but the referee wouldn't let him.
To the rescue came the Indiana cheerleading squad. Nathan Paris, a senior cheerleader from Floyds Knobs, Ind., hoisted partner Cassidy Cerny, a sophomore from Avon, Ind., up on his shoulders, just like they do in many of their routines, and he lifted her into the air with his hands. She stood up and grabbed the ball off the board, and the game continued.