Ja’Markkus Evans, freshman in industrial engineering, put his athleticism to use Tuesday, winning the VEISHEA Slam Dunk Contest.

Evans stands at a wiry 6-feet, 4-inches with a very large wingspan. He played for his team at Waterloo East and received interest from various junior colleges.

Evans’s dunk arsenal included a 360-degree spinning dunk and also a dunk where he jumped over one of his much shorter friends in attendance.

“I went to the gym earlier and I was working on some dunks because I didn’t really know what I could do,” Evans said following the victory. 

Evans and his friends also experimented with alley-oop style dunks prior to the contest. While he also pulled out a windmill dunk during the contest, he said he his favorite dunk is all about keeping it simple.

“I might be the easiest, but my favorite is the two-handed tomahawk,” Evans said. “It looks like you’re putting an exclamation mark on the game. If you’re dunking on somebody, just coming down on them and slamming the ball, it’s really intimidating to the person that’s under you.”

Evans said he hopes to earn a spot playing for coach Fred Hoiberg on the ISU basketball team.