 Andre
Emmett of Texas Tech took home the title, leaping
over six children huddled in a group on his final
dunk to beat out Bowden by two-tenths of a point.
Emmett scored a near-perfect 59.4 on the jam.
Bowden made the individual contest a team show
by taking a Statue of Liberty handoff from teammate
Tyler Newton in the semifinals. Then Bowden lept
over Miah Davis, another teammate, in the finals.
Part of the judging criteria was creativity. Emmett
earned the only perfect score of the night in
the semifinals by tossing a bounce pass to himself
off the back wall. Other contestants were Julius
Page of Pittsburgh (named after Julius Irving),
Bobby Carter of Western Illinois, Sylvester Willis
of Southern Illinois, Winston Davis of Lafayette.
Tony Allen of Oklahoma State was invited but did
not compete because his team is playing in the
Final Four. Contestants were judged for difficulty
and creativity. With this mandate, dunkers tried
everything - off the shot clock, wall, backboard,
tearing their shirts off - as well as resorting
to the classics - 360-degree dunks, windmill jams
and from-the-foul-line leaps. Some of the contestants
post-dunk showboating reflected NFL-style celebrations,
without the fines and 15-yard penalties. One contestant
pulled out a Sharpie to sign the ball a la Terrell
Owens, and another pulled out a cell phone. A
shirtless Bowden took a black cowboy hat from
Newton after the semifinals to dance under the
hoop. |
