Husky Basketball Fan Fest Was A Success:

The St. Cloud State University Men’s and Women’s basketball seasons got off to an entertaining start on Monday with the annual Husky Basketball Fan Fest. The night featured five events including: a three-point shootout, celebrity lightning, a dunk contest, a half-court shot challenge, and intra-squad scrimmages.

After a five minute warm-up session the three-point shootout commenced. The participants were sophomore guard Chuckie Smith (Minneapolis, MN) from the Men’s team and sophomore guard Kaytlin Kuefler (Annandale, MN) from the Women’s team. Each player was given 3 ball racks (of 4 balls each) and tasked to hit as many threes as possible in 90 seconds. Unlike the NBA All-Star Weekend’s three point shootout, the only rack that had a money ball was the final rack (it still counted for 2 points), so the most points you could get in a round was 13. Kuefler would start off the contest by making 2 of her 4 attempts from the right corner and 3 of her 4 straightaway threes. Kuefler struggled from the left corner, failing to hit on any of her four attempts and leaving her with 5 points for the round. With the door left open, Smith would hit 2 on the first rack, 1 on the second, and hit the money ball on the final rack to tie Kuefler. For the overtime round each player was allowed to re-shoot the last rack. Kuefler would again go first and would make 1 out of 4 shots. Smith would rack up 4 points on 3 of 4 shooting and win the contest.

The second event of the evening was the Celebrity Lightning contest. It featured 7 celebrities including Assistant Men’s Basketball Coach Mahmoud Abdelfattah, Husky Men’s basketball all-time scoring leader Dan Hagen (2136 points, 19.8 PPG), and members of the fast pitch and track and field teams. A total of 7 celebrities participated in the game. On his way to victory Abdelfattah would employ several strategies such as pump faking before taking his shot in an attempt to throw off the timing of the would-be eliminator that followed him.

After the playfulness of the celebrity lightning, the Men’s basketball program sent out Eddie Alcantara, Donnell Cegers, Jordan Poydras, and highflyer James Fort for the dunk contest. Eddie Alcantara would get the show started with a skillfully executed 360-degree jam. Cegers would follow it up with a windmill. However, James Fort stole the show with 2 eletrifying jams including one in which he slammed the ball into the glass and proceeded to throw it down hard with both hands.

The fourth event was a 30 second half-court shot challenge participated in by several members of the Women’s basketball team including Carley Jeffrey, Andrea Thomas, and Chelsea Nooker. The objective of the challenge was quite simple, make a shot from half-court within the time limit. In the end a couple of heaves came close but none managed to hit the mark.

The final events of the evening were the intra-squad scrimmages. Both scrimmages were five minutes long and would allow each player to play at some point during the game. First up were the men, the home squad was led by senior captain Kevin Levandoski and the road team was led by last year’s top scorer Jordan Poydras. Despite the fact that the season has yet to officially begin the teams looked to be in good shape during the scrimmage. In the end Levandoski and his crew would pull out the win 15-10. The home squad for the Women’s team was headed by senior guard Carley Jeffrey while the away team was led by Eva Lampert. After a pitched battle, Jeffrey’s team got the victory 15-12.

To close a night filled with fun Carley Jeffrey and Eddie Alcantara talked to the crowd. They thanked the crowd for coming out to the event and invited them to the first home games of the year before taking a lap around the arena and high-fiving the fans. After this the teams retreated from the court in order to sign autographs.

The Husky Women’s basketball team will play an exhibition game against the University of St. Thomas at Halenbeck Hall on Nov. 8^th at 2pm. The Husky Men’s team will start the year with an exhibition game against Michigan State University on Nov. 7^th. Following this they will travel to Las Vegas to face off with Lindenwood University and Emporia State University before their home opener against UW-Parkside on Nov. 21^st at 7pm.