San Antonio, TX- Iowa’s Payton Sandfort flew south to the Frost Bank Center in Texas last night for the 36th annual State Farm College Slam Dunk & 3-Point Championships for one more opportunity to don the black and gold.
The Hawkeye was just the 7th member in program history to participate in the E*TRADE men’s 3-Point Championship and was eyeing to become just the second one to win it. However, that did not come to fruition for the 34% perimeter shooter.
In his first round of shooting, Sandfort had a nice rhythm thrown the first three racks, totaling double digit points. Nevertheless, Sandfort went cold late, collecting 15 points and falling four behind the mark to advance to the semifinals.
Tyler McGhie of UC San Diego went on to defeat Caleb Grill of Missouri in the finals with 20 points. On the women’s side, Alyssa Durazo-Frescas of Grand Canyon’s 14 points in the semifinals was nine points behind Aaliyah Nye of Alabama, but it was enough to win the tiebreaker to advance to the championship match.
Durazo-Frescas took advantage of the opportunity, knocking down 23 points and upsetting Nye, who had her worst round with 18 points.
McGhie won the Sketchers Battle of the Champions over Durazo-Frescas 21-18.
For the King’s Hawaiian Slam Dunk Championship, Christian Ings of Norfolk State dominated, tabbing the best score in every round to be named the slam dunk champion over Kylen Milton of Murray State.
To earn the belt, Ings vaulted over Sandfort, who stands at 6’7, for a posterizing dunk, earning 39 of a possible 40 points.