(Cazenovia, NY – Feb. 28, 2013) Across the country, colleges took part in a season-long celebration of 75 Years of March Madness. In recognition of this milestone, the Cazenovia College Department of Athletics hosted a March Madness Shooting Competition for the Wildcat fans during halftime of several men’s basketball games.
The contestants, assisted by the Cazenovia College Student Athletic Advisory Committee (S.A.A.C.), performed a modified version of the nation-wide contest on two separate occasions to narrow it down to our final three.
Eleven people participated in the preliminary round: Jazmine Daniel, Naaman Copeland, Kadeem Barro, Nick Allen, Avery Hayward, Timothy Tarry, Kory Besaw, Nick Bartolotta, James Chase, Joe Celeste, and Matt Phillips.
The top six finishers (Barro, Phillips, Celeste, Besaw, Copeland, Allen) went on to compete at the next halftime shootout. After the final three contestants were determined (Copeland, Phillips, Allen), they shot it out at halftime of the SUNY Cobleskill game on Feb. 16. Each contestant had 75 seconds to amass as many points as possible. Each lay-up was worth one point, the spot on the block was worth two points, the free throw line was three points, the elbow four points, the free throw line extended was five points and from the behind the arc was worth six points.
Any contestant attempting a shot at all six spots will get an additional twelve points. There was no one to rebound and no contestant could take any more than two attempts from the lay-up spot.
Nick Allen was the winning participant, collecting 35 points in the finals.
Matt Phillips came in second with 33, and Naaman Copeland tallied 28.
S.A.A.C. members helped make this possibly by providing sign-up sheets for a whole week, laying out the spots on the floor, score keeping, and promoting the contest via facebook and twitter.
Campus winner, Nick Allen, will have his name placed into the pool of campus winners from around the nation, with a chance to appear in Atlanta at the NCAA Men’s Final Four in April as one of the country’s top ten best shooters in this nationwide competition.