Tabor player 4th in dunk contest
Staff writer
With a 49-inch vertical leap, Tabor point guard DeShun Patterson can almost leap tall buildings in a single bound.
The 5-10 high-flyer from Minneapolis, Minnesota, had his dunking ability on display Thursday night at a college dunk and 3-point shooting contest televised on ESPN2 as a precursor to this weekend’s Final 4 in San Antonio.
Out of eight competitors from NCAA and NAIA schools nationwide, Patterson, who was an honorable mention all-conference selection, finished fourth.
After a perfect score of 40 in the first round and 35 in the second, Patterson was in first place heading into the semifinals.
A costly semifinal attempt took him out of contention, setting up a final round between eventual winner Joseph Kilgore of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Zach Smith of Texas Tech.
Former San Antonio Spurs players George Gervin, Sean Elliott, and Bruce Bowen and three-time NBA dunking champion Nate Robinson judged the contest along with Twitter users.
After Patterson’s first attempt, Robinson, who had been unimpressed with others’ dunks, ran onto the court to congratulate him.
Patterson was one of three players selected by an NAIA committee to participate. A fourth was selected by fan vote.