Men's Basketball Southern Conference

Chattanooga's Katelynas wins Slam Dunk Contest

ST. LOUIS --- Mindaugas Katelynas is the 2005 champion of the Mountain Dew College Slam Dunk Championships.

The senior from Alytus, Lithuania, recorded two consecutive perfect scores of 60 points Thursday night and beat out seven other competitors from various college basketball programs.

Katelynas was the leader after the first dunk, scoring a 55.1 on a baseline, under-the-basket slam. He added a score of 56.2 on his second dunk to be one of four to advance to the semifinals.

Katelynas joined Sacramento State's Jameel Pugh in the finals by receiving a perfect score of 60 on a leaping dunk from the free throw line.

In the finals, Pugh failed to convert a dunk before his 30-second time limit expired, and Katelynas needed just 33 points to win the contest. Instead, he raced in from the left wing, went under his legs and threw the ball down on the right side of the rim with his right hand.

He was awarded his second straight score of 60 to win the trophy.


"The crowd came to see a show," he said after the contest. "I knew I could have won it with an average dunk, but I wanted to do something special to close it out. These are all excellent athletes, and I am very excited to win."

The Slam Dunk and 3-Point Championships were held at the Washington University Field House in conjunction with the NCAA Men's Basketball Championships Final Four.


Also competing in the dunking contest were Wesley Duke of Mercer, Chuck Hayes of Kentucky, Rawle Marshall of Oakland, Jason Maxiell of Cincinnati, Ed McCants of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Daniel McGaffney of West Virginia Tech.