AMES, Iowa. — Deonte Burton held up one finger and made a pleading face at Nick Babb. The two were squaring off in Friday night’s Hilton Madness dunk finals and both had failed to make a dunk the first time around.
Burton looked to his teammate and said, “One more.”
Babb’s attempts to slam one through were fruitless, but Burton finished off the show with a one-handed tomahawk dunk off the backboard to win his second Hilton Madness dunk contest in a row.
Deonte Burton wins the Hilton Madness dunk contest with this dunk. Back-to-back for Burton. pic.twitter.com/Ez6JQQQMPK
— Jared Stansbury (@Stanz51) October 15, 2016
“The first one, I missed on purpose, because Babb missed,” Burton said. “I ended up doing a dunk that I did when I first started dunking.”
Some highlights from the first two rounds of the Hilton Madness dunk contest pic.twitter.com/zqUXZvYEm7
— Jared Stansbury (@Stanz51) October 15, 2016
Burton’s winning dunk was definitely one of the highlights, but likely the high point of the night came when junior guard Donovan Jackson won the 3-point contest. He collected 25 of the 30 possible points during the men’s championship matchup against Monte Morris, including making 14 of his last 15 shots.
Donovan Jackson is the Hilton Madness 3-point champion pic.twitter.com/3Sf9ApJJd9
— CycloneFanatic.com (@cyclonefanatic) October 15, 2016
He closed the title by defeating Bridget Carleton decidedly in the overall finals and closing the round with some dance moves.
“It was great tonight,” Jackson said. “I love the energy in here. For the first time, I got to shoot in here, so it was great.”
There’s no doubting Jackson was able to quickly adjust to the shooting environment at Hilton Coliseum. There’s also no doubt Friday was another successful Hilton Madness event.
“Just to be here,” Jackson said. “It was a great feeling.”
