A US college basketball player who lost one of his arms during an accident in childhood has caused a sensation after he scored his first points for his university last weekend.

Hansel Emmanuel, 19, was six years old and growing up in the Dominican Republic when a pile of cinderblocks fell on him. He was so badly hurt that doctors had to amputate his left arm for him to ultimately recover.

Emmanuel later moved to Florida and made a name for himself playing basketball in high school, scoring prolifically against opponents who presumably had use of all of their limbs. Colleges became interested in recruiting Emmanuel to their team after social media users published videos highlighting his skills and biggest plays, and he ultimately signed with Louisiana’s Northwestern State University.

Northwestern was comfortably leading a home game in Natchitoches – a city of 17,000 which is a little more than an hour’s drive from Shreveport – on Saturday night when the 6ft 6in Emmanuel was sent on to the court late for his Demons team. The first-year player at one point collected the ball, weaved in from the right, dribbled between two defenders and finished a spectacular layup that brought virtually all the game’s spectators as well as his teammates to their feet.

Later, Emmanuel provoked a foul from a defender, made the first free throw he tried but then missed the second one. He recovered his miss, dribbled once and then threw down a right-handed dunk that electrified the crowd and upped his tallies for the night to five points and two rebounds in eight minutes of action against the University of Louisiana-Monroe.

“I had to keep going after the layup – that was my first bucket,” Emmanuel later said in a statement attributed to him and posted on his university’s website after Northwestern won 89-70 in front of a crowd of 1,627. “I know my family was proud. I had to keep working. You can’t give up.”

Emmanuel had previously made four appearances for the Demons, missing both of the shots he had attempted and hauling in one rebound.

His performance on Saturday helped Northwestern collect its eighth win in 10 outings, along with the Demons’ seventh consecutive victory. It also drew headlines from national news outlets, including ESPN, CBS, the Associated Press and the Daily Beast.

A coach who worked with Emmanuel when he was younger, Ricardo Catala, told a CBS affiliate last year that some initially thought he played just as a gimmick “and didn’t know if he could do it against top talent”.

But he earned an Espy awards nomination for best play this summer after a steal-and-dunk from his high school days went viral online. He lost to a corner-kick goal from the US soccer star Megan Rapinoe.

Emmanuel produced another highlight reel clip with a steal-and-dunk while playing this year in the Drew, the famed summertime league in Los Angeles that regularly attracts NBA players trying to keep in shape during the offseason. And now he’s started making a mark for a team that started the week in first place in its conference.

“It’s a testament to his work ethic and how good he is and special he is,” the 24/7 Sports scout Brandon Jenkins told CBS when asked about Emmanuel last year. “There’s always room to grow and the sky’s the limit for a kid like him.”

The Associated Press contributed reporting