Nearly 3,500 fans gathered in Koch Arena Thursday night for Shocker Madness to get their first taste of the a new Wichita State basketball season.

The event included a men’s and women’s three-point contest, a dunk contest and scrimmages by both the men’s and women’s teams.

Three-point contest

A three-point contest was the first event slated for the night.

Jyar Francis won the three-point contest for the women with 10 points. Senior TaQuandra Mike and junior Tamara Lee each followed with six points. Last year’s champion, junior Rangie Bessard finished with four points.

Redshirt junior Conner Frankamp was the three-point champion for the men, topping teammate Landry Shamet 19-18. Freshman guard Austin Reaves followed with 16 points, junior Zach Brown finished with 11. 

Dunk contest

Events followed with a dunk contest between newcomers freshman C.J. Keyser, sophomore Kaelen Malone, junior Darral Willis, Jr. and last year’s champion sophomore Eric Hamilton.

Keyser started the contest with a 360-dunk, slamming the ball in with one hand. He set the tone with a score of 45.

Malone and Willis followed with scores of 40 points.

The reigning champion, Hamilton, scored the night’s first perfect score of 50 when he hurdled over three basketball managers, slamming a one-handed finish.

“I was coming up with the [dunks] on the fly” Hamilton said.

Hamilton previously won last year’s competition after dunking over a basketball manager and the university’s mascot.

The final round of the contest pitted Keyser against Hamilton.

Both scored perfect in the second round with Keyser going between the legs for a one-handed slam. Hamilton matched.

A final competition ended when Hamilton leaped over 6’8″ forward Shaquille Morris, picking the ball off Morris’s head for the final dunk of the evening.

“Shaq just came up to me and said ‘why don’t you do this?’” Hamilton said. 

Women’s scrimmage

The women played a 15-minute scrimmage.

The black team, a line-up of Keke Thompson, Tamara Lee, Rangie Bessard, Jaleesa Chapel and TaQuandra Mike came out on top in the scrimmage.

Bessard led the rotation with eight points and four rebounds.

Their opponents — the yellow team — consisted of a lineup of Diamond Lockhart, Jeliah Preston, Aundra Stovall, Sabrina Lozada-Cabbage and Kayla William

Freshman Kayla Williams led the lineup with four points.

“I got to the basket more. That’s something that I’ve always been trying to work on” Williams said.

Black defeated yellow 24-6.

Men’s scrimmage

Landry Shamet, Daishon Smith, Markis McDuffie, Rashard Kelly and Eric Hamilton represented the rotation of yellow team starters.

McDuffie shot 5-6 from the field for 11 points. Smith displayed quickness and pesky defense for 29 minutes of play.

Their opponents, the black team, consisted of Rauno Nurger, Darral Willis, Austin Reaves, Zach Brown and Conner Frankamp.

Junior Shaquille Morris did not compete in any events due to soreness in his knee.

Willis led the black team with 12 points. He displayed ability to shoot the jumper and pull-up from three-point range.

“[Willis] can score the ball very well,” McDuffie said. “That’s what I like most about him. I hope he just brings it during the season.”

Yellow team defeated the black team 35-30.

“We just wanted to make them think a bit,” Marshall said. “We wanted to give them some different looks, and try to force some turnovers to get easy baskets.”

Fans await the answer as the starting point guard — a question still looming with no answer in near sight.

“[The point guard play] was just okay tonight,” Marshall said.

Smith, Frankamp and Reaves all played time in the scrimmage in the point guard slot.