A pack of towering Division I basketball players were left helpless when a ball got wedged under the shot clock during a game Tuesday night.

The solution? Think small.

A comical scene unfolded after a ball got stuck in the first half of a game between Fresno State and Boise State. Players tried to jab at the ball with a mop handle, then shot other basketballs at the target, but to no avail.

Two fans _ one a grown man and the other a child in a blue jumpsuit _ then stood up from the front row, and the man lifted the child behind the backboard. The boy pulled himself up, poked the basketball free from nearly about 14 feet in the air, then was brought back down by the man and a few Fresno State players.