Showstopper: Vaughn wins second straight dunk title

By Joe Conroy

Published: March 28, 2008

Hoops Fest 13 had plenty to cheer about at Gar-Field Friday night, that’s for sure.

An Indians player won the girls’ 3-point contest to start the events and the boys had an unexpected victor who made just eight all year.

But there is just something about a guy in a cape you can’t ignore.

Donald Vaughn, a Potomac senior, took the defense of his 2007 dunk contest title seriously. The 6-foot-4 high-flier fashioned a black mantle featuring a silver “D” on a purple Superman emblem to his Panthers jersey and proceeded to leap over four friends, throwing down a vicious, one-handed jam, sending the Gar-Field crowd of 1,766 into a raucous frenzy.

It was the final dunk of the night, winning Vaughn the trophy out-right, and it was just what he needed to seal his second victory in the competition. On Wednesday, during a dunk workout at Potomac, Vaughn said he had two dunks already planned for the final round but was still trying to come up with a grand finale.

“I still haven’t thought of one yet,” Vaughn said after the win, still wearing his cloak. “My mom kept insisting that do a Superman costume.”

Vaughn admitted being inspired somewhat by the Orlando Magic’s Dwight Howard’s NBA dunk contest jam when the center dressed up in a Man of Steel costume for his winning slam in February.

But Vaughn’s impression, which included jumping over four huddled friends — Mulku Kalokoh, Abass Conteh, Greg Grant and basketball teammate Devonne Blackshear — earned him a perfect score of 30 from the three judges leaving him a final number of 88 after two 29’s.

Alison Firich gave the home crowd something to get excited about to start the night, leading off the girls’ 3-point competition with 15 points, four more than the next closest contestant in the first round. The Gar-Field senior finished the night with 26 total after 11 in the championship round to beat Manassas Park’s Leann Breedon.

Firich went second in the final round and had more than beaten Breedon’s total of four by the time she reached the final rack. After taking her last shot, Firich spun around and hugged her older sister Lauren, in town from Richmond for the event. The elder sister won the 3-point contest in 2006.

“I was really nervous,” Firich said, “but the support from the fans definitely helps and that got me pumped up. That helped me relax and shoot like I know how.

“I was really glad [Lauren] got here to see me from the University of Richmond,” Firich added. “She got here kind of late and I wasn’t sure she was going to make it.”

Breedon also went home with a trophy, winning the 2-ball competition with fellow Cougar Alonzo Miller.

The two found a strategy and stuck with it, paying off in an eight-point advantage over Brentsville’s duo of Keyla Baltimore and David Hammond.

“Our main strategy was to get all the outside shots first and then, at 15 seconds, we’d just shoot layups,” said Breedon, who placed second in last year’s 2-ball game.

“She was hitting all the 3’s and I was just letting her heat up,” Miller said. Miller was a late replacement for Daniel Bigelow who was unable to make the event.

Between Firich’s triumph and the 2-ball event, Graham Greening of Forest Park kept the crowd pumped, winning as a dark horse in the 3-point competition. Greening, who scored a total of 46 points this year with eight 3’s, beat 15 of the county’s shooting specialists including Woodbridge’s David Thomas (45 3’s), Manassas Park’s Donald Farmer (46), and Evangel’s Caleb Lambert (35).

“I was preparing all week,” said Greening, who scored 20 points in the first round and 15 in the final. “I was shooting with my assistant coach using a rack so I’d be used to it. I’ve never been in a 3-point contest like this before.”

He certainly had the crowd fooled. After starting relatively cold in his first round, Greening found his stroke by the third of the five racks, making four consecutive at one point, including the third rack’s “money ball” which was worth two points.

“I guess it’s confidence,” Greening said. “Some people lose confidence after missing a few. But that just makes me more motivated to start making shots, so I started concentrating more and knocked them down.”