NATCHITOCHES – Soon enough – eight days to be exact – the action in Prather Coliseum will be serious and meaningful.
Thursday night's Northwestern State Basketball Tip-Off Event, however, was all about fun and frivolity.
A strong crowd was on hand inside Prather Coliseum to get its first look at the NSU men's and women's basketball teams and were treated to a pair of 5-minute scrimmages, a dunk contest, a 3-point shootout and a collaborative "Juju On That Beat" challenge.
"It was great that we (won the 3-point shootout), but we lost the dance contest and there were obvious reasons for that," said
Mike McConathy, who enters his 18
th season at the helm of the Demons program. "The young ladies did a great job, and our young ladies (the Demon Dazzlers) didn't have much of a chance with us backing them up."
Despite the moves shown by senior guard
Sabri Thompson and freshman guard
Josh Boyd, the Lady Demons and Purple Pizazz Pom Pon Line were the fans' choice to claim the Juju gold.
Thompson came away with an individual win, edging fellow senior
Beatrice Attura in the 3-point shootout, 17-13. Each player took 25 shots – five apiece from five spots around the arc – in the event.
Before each team and its respective coach took the dance floor, each side went through a 5-minute intrasquad scrimmage.
At his introductory news conference in May and throughout his five-plus months on campus, Jordan Dupuy has expressed his hope for his team to push the tempo. Those in attendance saw that during the scrimmage as
Shahd Abboud had a pair of fastbreak layups and assisted on another.
"Coach (Dupuy) emphasizes transition a lot," said Attura, a preseason second-team All-Southland Conference selection. "Hopefully that means we'll put up more point, we'll get more stops and run in transition more."
Dupuy enjoyed his first Tip-Off Event, looking at home during the Juju challenge.
He also found benefits beyond dancing and even the scrimmage.
"It was a great experience," he said. "It was good to get our fans out here and get basketball in their heads. Our girls love playing in front of our fans. The dance was really fun. Any time we can compete against the men, we love it."
First-team preseason All-Southland Conference selection
Zeek Woodley and his teammates kept the pace high during their scrimmage, which featured several highlight-reel dunks, including
Malik Metoyer's two-handed putback of a missed 3-pointer.
Following the up-tempo scrimmages and Vic the Demon's Kid's Dunk Contest, four Demons took the floor for their dunk contest.
Freshman
Tanner Hamilton and sophomore
Reginald Kissoonlal reached the finals, dispatching Thompson and
Iziahiah Sweeney in the semifinals.
Hamilton downed Kissoonlal in the finals as the sophomore was unable to complete a dunk in the 30-second timeframe, keeping his teammates laughing on the bench.
Thompson saved face in the evening's final event, knocking down four of his first five 3s from the left corner to slip past Attura in the 3-point contest.
"We just like to put on a show for the fans," said Woodley, who cleanly swished a 28-foot, left-wing 3-pointer during the scrimmage. "We want to have a better season. We were trying to entertain the fans and community so they come support us this year."
And about the dance contest?
"We lost the dance contest because I didn't compete in it," Woodley said. "I think I'm the best dancer on the team. They were slacking, but Sabri came back and won the 3-point contest. That was a positive moment."
McConathy found one final positive from the hour-long event that culminated with both teams autographing NSU schedule posters for fans and for their fellow student-athletes.
"These scrimmages are fun, and you're hoping no one gets hurt," he said. "Fortunately for us, nobody got hurt."
