Montverde’s De Sousa claims dunk title, Mater Dei’s Freedman wins 3-point crown

With so many great teams in the Beach Ball Classic lineup, there was bound to be some remarkable shooters and dunkers in the mix.

Perhaps none better than Mater Dei (Calif.) sharpshooter Spencer Freedman and Montverde (Fla.) Academy big man Silvio De Sousa, though.

De Sousa won the Beach Ball Classic dunk contest, while Freedman claimed the 3-point contest title on Sunday in front of a packed-in crowd at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center.

“When I knew I was going to be in the dunk contest, I wanted to put on a show for my team, all my teammates,” De Sousa said. “I knew I had a good chance to win and did it with that last dunk there.”

De Sousa was referring to his slam in the final round, where he tried to mirror the one Chicago Bulls great Michael Jordan did in the 1988 NBA slam dunk contest. Jordan dunked it from behind the free throw line, while De Sousa completed his from just inside the line.

Nonetheless, it was enough for a victory as he edged out Seton Hall’s (N.J.) Alex Imeqwu in the final round. And the crowd erupted.

“I love the fans,” De Sousa. “They support me a lot and I really appreciate it.”

De Sousa was so grateful, he added an encore dunk in which he jammed home a windmill.

“That was just to represent my teammates and to keep the crowd going,” De Sousa said. “Montverde is for real.”

Freedman gave the Beach Ball Classic fans a taste of Mater Dei before they even hit the court. The Monarchs don’t play their first round game until Monday when they take on Myrtle Beach at 8:45 p.m.

“It’s great. You don’t come all the way across the country to lose,” Freedman said. “It goes back to working on my game and shooting every day in the gym. You can see it pays off. Obviously, it’s not a real game but just to be out here with all these great shooters and to do something like that is really special.”

Freedman tied with Poca junior Elijah Cuffee in the first round as each nailed 16 treys. Joining the pair in the final round was Shadow Mountain’s Michael Bibby, son of former NBA star Mike Bibby, and St. Edward’s (Ohio) Jack Sullivan.

Sullivan hit eight in the final round, Bibby had 10, Cuffee nailed 11, but Freedman had 14 in the to solidify the 3-point crown.

“Part of it was nerves, a big gym and huge environment,” Freedman said. “There were a lot of amazing shooters out here and to win it is really nice.”

Now, Freedman would like for his team to get the job done when it matters most.

“We definitely want to come out here and prove what California can do,” Freedman said. “Obviously Chino Hills, which beat Montverde in the past week, showed that California might be a little tougher than people may think and we want to continue that out here.”

On Sunday, though, Freedman had a chance to be a star and a fan.

“That was incredible,” Freedman said of the dunk contest. “[De Sousa] is something else with that athleticism. … It’s just great to be out here with all this talent.”

This story was originally published December 27, 2015 at 10:03 PM with the headline "Montverde’s De Sousa claims dunk title, Mater Dei’s Freedman wins 3-point crown."