Wake Forest Athletics
L.D. Williams Places Fourth in Slam Dunk Contest
4/2/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
April 2, 2010
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - Wake Forest senior guard L.D. Williams took home fourth place in the 22nd Annual State Farm College Slam Dunk Championship on Thursday evening in Indianapolis.
Williams was one of four competitors to advance to the semifinal round, but his highly-difficult third dunk attempt came up just short, eliminating Williams from the competition.
The slam dunk contest consisted of three rounds. In the first round, the eight participants each took turns taking two dunks apiece. The four dunkers with the highest average score after their two dunks advanced to the semifinal round.
In the semifinals, each participant had 30 seconds to complete one dunk. The two highest-scoring dunkers advanced to the finals, where each had 60 seconds to make one last slam.
The dunks were judged by a panel of five Indianapolis area professional athletes: Danny Granger and Dahntay Jones of the Indiana Pacers, Gary Brackett and Eric Foster of the Indianapolis Colts and former Pacer and NBA Dunk Champion Fred Jones.
Williams advanced to the semifinals after finishing third of eight dunkers in the preliminary round. He received a score of 43.0 on his first dunk of the night. Williams went up cradling the ball in his right hand before deftly switching to his left just before slamming it home. It took him two attempts to complete the dunk, but his score was good enough for fifth place after the first round of dunks.
Williams turned in one of the most impressive dunks on the night on his second attempt. He had a Denny's sponsor sign set up in the middle of the paint area several feet away from the rim. Williams then ran at the sign and leapt over it before slamming home a windmill dunk.
Williams received a score of 46.5, which gave him an average of 44.8 in the preliminary round. That score was good enough for third, which allowed the Deacon guard to advance.
Williams attempted a semifinal dunk with a very high degree of difficulty. He had Villanova guard Scottie Reynolds stand behind the left of the basket and bounce a ball off the back of the glass. Williams then ran in and caught the ball in mid-air and tried to slam it home on the opposite side of the basket.
Unfortunately, Williams could not get around the rim enough to complete the dunk. He tried the dunk three times, coming up just inches short on his third attempt, before time ran out.
Williams received a score of 27.5 for the effort, but that knocked him down to fourth in the final standings. Vermont's Marqus Blakely won the slam dunk contest, defeating Bradley's Chris Roberts in the final. Marquette's Lazar Hayward took home third place.
Cal State Fullerton's Gerard Anderson, Temple's Ryan Brooks, UT-Arlington's Marquez Haynes and Old Dominion's Marsharee Neely also competed in the dunk contest.
Williams was the first Deacon to compete in the college slam dunk contest since Antwan Scott in 2002.
Williams sported a Wake Forest throwback uniform that the team wore for several games during the 2006-07 season.
Maryland's Eric Hayes won the men's three-point contest earlier in the evening, while Detroit Mercy's Brigid Mulroy took home the women's three-point title. Hayes defeated Mulroy in the battle of the champions.
