The men and women’s basketball teams participated in McLeod Madness Thursday to get Panther fans excited for the up-coming basketball season.

The men’s and women’s teams competed against each other in a three-point contest in which Deon Mitchell, senior family services major,  out-shot Erin Dohnalek, sophomore economics major, for the crown of best three-point shooter of the night.

Klint Carlson, sophomore deciding major, won the slam-dunk competition with dunks that wowed the crowd.  Teammate Jeremy Morgan, sophomore deciding major, competed in the event wearing a Go Pro camera on his head, filming his dunks from his perspective. 

“I liked that they showed videos when they were setting up for the next parts.  My favorite part was the slam-dunk contest because I know Klint, Bennett and Jeremy,” said Ellen Barbaresso, junior Math Education major.

Sharnae Lamar, senior economics major, and Marvin Singleton, senior advertising and digital media major, teamed up to win the skills competition.  

The skills competition saw a member of both the men’s and women’s squads team up to dribble the ball through cones before taking a shot, then race back to pass the basketball through a wooden cutout.

The night also saw the men’s team split in two and scrimmage against one another for nine minutes.  The women’s team did the same only they scrimmaged against various men from campus.

Ten students were selected at random to take half-court shots, with a semester’s tuition paid in-full as the prize for making the shot. 

After some close calls, no one made it, so they moved up to the three-point line where two of the ten students won free texts books for next semester after making their shots.

“The dunk contest was my favorite part. It was pretty fun with the different competitions, it made it feel like an NBA all-star game and it was just a great preview to the upcoming season for both the men’s and women’s basketball teams,” said Paul Ochoa, senior electronic media major.