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UPDATE: Utah will reach a solution with fan who made half-court shot

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during a quarterfinal game of the Pac-12 Basketball Tournament at T-Mobile Arena on March 9, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. California won 78-75.

Ethan Miller

University of Utah fan Charlie Caine claimed the school stiffed him out of a $5,000 prize for making a half-court shot on Friday night but the school later reached out to the 17-year-old to resolve the matter.

Caine made the promotional half-court shot during the second half of Utah’s home game against Eastern Washington on Friday. Making that half-court shot usually means a $5,000 prize. But Caine took to Twitter late Friday night to express that Utah wouldn’t pay him the money because he’s only 17 years old.

Caine contended that he deserved the money. He also questioned why Utah would even select him to shoot if he wasn’t eligible for the $5,000 prize. Lynn Worthy of the Salt Lake Tribune even mentioned Charlie’s shot (and the $5,000 prize) on Twitter while covering Friday’s game.

Here’s a video of the shot.

Former Utah walk-on guard Austin Eastman even joked that Charlie deserved the money because, “he’s made more shots in Huntsman than I did!!!”

Charlie is a dedicated Utah fan that the University even retweeted him as a 15-year-old repping the school from Centre Court at Wimbledon. For awhile, this didn’t look good for Utah.

Thankfully, this story found a happy ending. Caine spoke with Utah Athletic Director Chris Hill and it appears Caine will work something out with the school.

Caine also acknowledged that Mountain America Credit Union was not a sponsor of the half-court promotion, which was previously stated in the original NBC Sports story. I apologize to Mountain America Credit Union for including them in the original version.