BATON ROUGE — An estimated crowd of 5,000 came out on the first night Division I men and women’s basketball teams could hit the floor nationally to welcome the 2006-07 editions of the LSU Tigers and the Lady Tigers at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The crowd took advantage of a pre-event autograph session on the upper concourse and to check out the new schedule cards and posters of the two teams before the interactive contests began on the floor where both teams captured Southeastern Conference Championships in 2006.
Among the highlights of the event was the $500 in Tiger Cash won by LSU student Gasper Migliore III by making a free throw while blindfolded.
In the featured slam dunk contest, defending champion sophomore Chris Johnson, who advanced to the finals in a second place tie with Dameon Mason after semifinal leader Magnum Rolle scored 48 of a possible 50 points, put together a dunk that the members of the Lady Tigers judging gave a perfect 50 points to successfully defend his title.
Other games saw the Tack Minor team win the three-point contest, 7-5, over Lady Tiger Allison Hightower, while RaShonta LeBlanc and Darnell Lazare combined in the two-ball event to edge sharpshooters Katie Antony and Tasmin Mitchell, 35-34. Finally, the Erica White team beat the Ben Voogd team in the Wacky Relay.
Both teams will hit the floor officially Saturday morning in closes to the public workouts in preparation for the first exhibition games for each team scheduled in early November. Season tickets remain on sale for both teams at the LSU Athletics Ticket Office and online at www.LSUsports.net.