I shot my shot — and ended up scoring.
Though I don’t exactly identify as a sports buff, I was excited to check out this past Friday’s Brooklyn Nets vs. Atlanta Hawks NBA game at Barclays Center.
But I wasn’t there to cheer on the Nets amid their tragic 19-59 season.
Instead, I was among the single New Yorkers on a hunt for love at “In the Wild,” an in-person dating experience founded by “The Bachelor” Season 28 contestant Lexi Young, who hosted its first NYC pre-game event in the hopes of bringing Big Apple daters together to connect IRL.
Young, who moved back to her hometown of Atlanta following her time on “The Bachelor,” started “In the Wild” in 2024 after re-downloading Hinge to kickstart her own dating journey — only to realize the world of apps still wasn’t for her.
“This can’t be the only way to meet someone,” the 32-year-old founder told The Post. (No kidding.)
“I ended up putting out a video that went viral on TikTok where I said, ‘If you’re single and live in Atlanta, we’re going to have this big event,’” Young recalled. “I thought no one was going to come, and we ended up having over 1,000 people show up — the line was wrapped around the block. I was like, ‘Oh, I think there’s something here.’”
Turns out, Young had tugged on daters’ heartstrings.
In the past year and a half, “In the Wild” — which focuses on getting people off apps and, as named, into the wild to find love — has hosted nearly 100 events and experiences, with chapters now in Atlanta, NYC and Nashville.
Young proudly claimed that they have jump-started the relationships of more than 200 couples so far, with a handful of pairs even becoming engaged.
Young and the ITW team have been going especially “hard and fast” into dating events teamed with sporting matchups like the one with the Nets, citing pre-game meet-ups as an opportunity for daters with a common interest to make strong bonds. She said they have even engaged in talks with the NFL and pro soccer teams in an effort to collab.
“With other singles events, it can be challenging to get an even ratio of girls to guys,” Young told The Post. “When we do sporting events, it definitely brings out more men.”
When some friends and I arrived for Friday night’s pre-game mixer and ice-breaker, target age range 25 to 35, at the Brooklyn complex’s social hub Modelo Bridge, I was eager to see this selection for myself, having previously attended other singles events and being disappointed with the short supply of male suitors.
And I definitely wasn’t alone.
Zoe Maher, a 26-year-old communications professional, had a similar history with prior dating events. She and her friend bought tickets to “Love in the Lane,” which had cost $60 a pop with one drink included, after seeing an advertisement on Instagram — and were hopeful to break their own losing streaks as single ladies.
“We’re both from Georgia, so when I saw this was the Nets vs. the Hawks, I was, like, ‘Oh, what a nice little hometown connection,’” Maher told The Post. “With a free drink added in, it just seemed like it would be a good night.”
It probably helps that most ITW events also involve a pre-vetting process — with men even requiring a formal sign-off from a woman in their lives to ensure “a higher quality of guest.” Participants also fill out pre-event compatibility surveys to be matched with someone else attending the experience, opening an envelope at the end to see if their “perfect match” was the one they ended up vibing with that night.
At first, it seemed like both Maher’s and my hopes would be dashed once again, after seeing a lack of men in general at the beginning of the mixer, with even fewer whom we were actually attracted to.
But as I continued to mingle — making friends with fellow female daters and filling out my “Love in the Lane” bingo card, which included spaces like “Been to a Nets game solo” and “Has ghosted or been ghosted” — I ended up chatting with two guys who came together as friends.
Against all my expectations, one of them even became my date for the night — a 32-year-old veterinary clinic receptionist (and avid Nets fan) named Ethan Hutchins.
As Ethan and I continued talking after our brief interview, I could feel a connection starting to grow. So when a member of the Nets’ public relations team offered us special seats closer to the action, we immediately said yes.
A surprise appearance on the Jumbotron “kiss cam” didn’t hurt, either.
While the game itself, which the Nets lost to the Hawks 141-107, ended up being so-so to this non-basketball fan, it did give me a new appreciation for the way a love for the game can bring people together — even daters.
“We’re really trying to bring singles together who are already going to these massive sporting events and find a way for them to connect and then follow up,” said Young. “It’s a really nice synergy, since these people already have tickets to the game, they’re single, and they want to find other single people who are going.
“We’re going to give them an avenue to do that.”
Though I lost track of Maher’s romantic fate in the flurry of my own love connection, Ethan and I have already taken that avenue to the real-life dating arena, having gone on a proper date the day after the game.
With plans to see each other this coming weekend, one can only guess what the future holds — a bucket or an air ball — further down the court.
