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Salukis wow crowd during dunk contest

The basketball rim at the south end of Davies Gymnasium had never experienced this amount of torture.

Half the SIU men's basketball team unleashed an eight-minute flurry of one and two hand dunks - some ricocheted off the back of the rim, while others were forcefully thrown through the net - between games two and three of the volleyball team's sweep of Drake Saturday.

But the exhibition that was hyped to be a dunk contest wound up being no more than a lay-up line on steroids, though the 386 people in attendance were thoroughly entertained. No winner was formally declared no score was kept.

Those who took part in the dunk contest - LaMar Owen, Tony Boyle, Randal Falker, Jamaal Foster, Wesley Clemmons, Mike Dale and Matt Shaw - wooed the crowd with their aerial assaults.

The requirements to be in the competition were simple.

"We know who can dunk and who can't," said SIU head coach Chris Lowery.

Darren Brooks, Stetson Hairston, Josh Warren, Kyle Smithpeters, Tony Young and C.J. Smith were the harshest critics, jeering their teammates when the execution of some of their dunk attempts went awry.

In one instance, Falker attempted to dunk from the free-throw line but realized in mid-flight that he wasn't Michael Jordan, Julius Erving or Vince Carter. He came back down to earth still holding the ball.

"He's the funny man on the team," Owen said. "He just does some things he knows he can't do, and just tries to get the crowd to laugh and get them in to it."

The contest quickly became a dunk-off between Owen and Dale.

Though Dale drew some "oohs" and "ahs" after catching a one-hand alley-oop, it was Owen who electrified the audience most often.

The crowd erupted after Owen threw a pass to himself off the backboard and reeled it in with a one-hand finish, a la Houston Rocket Tracy McGrady. The dunk even brought the master of ceremonies and Saluki guard Jamaal Tatum to his feet.

"I was the announcer, and in my final judgment LaMar was the winner," Tatum said. "He's a crowd pleaser."

The dunk fest gave people an opportunity to see the Salukis before their first exhibition game against Missouri Southern Sunday, and nearly filled the usually half-empty Davies Gymnasium stands.

"We know a lot of people are going to get to see a lot of the things we're going to do this year, and we're just trying to come out and support the volleyball girls," Owen said.