NEW ORLEANS – The University of Houston may be out of the NCAA Tournament, but they’re still making their presence felt at the Final Four.
Houston guard Taze Moore won the NCAA’s Slam Dunk Championship on Thursday night, a night with various skills competitions including a 3-point contest and the dunk contest.
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In the first round, Moore executed a high flying, reverse jam that netted him 36 points to rank second and advance, but this was just the beginning of what was to come.
Moore was one of two, along with Wake Forest’s Alondes Williams, to score 80 points in the semifinal round. His first semifinal dunk was an ode to longtime NBA great Vince Carter, where he switched to a Carter Toronto Raptors jersey while going for the forearm hang on the rim, much like Carter did on his way to the 2000 NBA Slam Dunk title. Moore then followed that with a dunk after going double tap off the backboard, followed by a celebratory Griddy dance.
Then, in the finals, he finished off an alley oop from the opposite side of the hoop while jumping over someone standing by the hoop.
And by the end of it, Moore had scored a full 40 points for that dunk and helped secure the title as college basketball’s best dunker.
This past season, Moore was a key player in the Cougars’ 32-6 season that culminated in a run to the Elite Eight.