PC hoop teams display mad skills

If the Porterville College men’s basketball team is as good on the court as it is at dancing the Zumba, it should be a successful and entertaining season.

The PC men’s basketball team showed off its moves when PC students and athletes danced the Zumba during one of many dance and entertainment routines featuring PC students and community youth at the fifth annual Pirate Madness event on Thursday. The annual event involving the community showcases and introduces the PC men’s and women’s basketball teams for the upcoming season.

The night ended with an entertaining display during the slam dunk contest from two of PC’s men’s basketball players, Tyrone Hall and Elijah Henningham.

“If they work as hard on the basketball court, it’s going to be a good season,” said PC men’s basketball coach T.J. Jennings in evaluating his team’s ability to Zumba. Jennings is still carrying 20 players and said he doesn’t have a set number that he wants to reduce his roster to. He said he will have a rotation of 12 to 13 players this season and also said that this is one of the most athletic teams he’s had.

That was demonstrated during the slam dunk contest in which Henningham and Hall advanced to the finals. Both Isaiah Dean and Robert Shackleford executed nice one-handed tomahawk jams, but it was Henningham and Hall who had the best dunks.

Hall was able to go ala Julius Erving from the 1976 ABA All-Star Game, beginning in the back court and flying down the lane from the foul line for a one-handed jam. Henningham was able to advance to the finals with a two-handed jam after he bounced the ball off the glass.

Hall almost came close to executing Michael Jordan’s signature windmill one-handed jam down the lane, but just missed both times he attempted the dunk. In the finals, Henningham went down the lane and skied high for a one-handed jam to win the contest.

The PC men now have a 3-2 edge in the five Pirate Madness events over the PC women in the three-point shooting contest. Strathmore’s Eva Gutierrez found the range to advance to the finals for PC’s women when she hit six straight threes on her way to hitting seven threes.

Monache’s Miguel Perez advanced to the finals for PC’s men, also hitting seven threes. In the finals, Perez outshot Gutierrez 10-6.