Ultimate throwdown

After energizing his team, Detrick Mostella stuck around a while longer to electrify the crowd packed into ‘Iolani’s lower gym.

The La Lumiere (Ind.) High School guard had just scored 21 points to lead the Lakers to a win over Oak Hill in the semifinals of last year’s ‘Iolani Classic, then put on a show in the tournament’s slam dunk contest.

Mostella thrilled the fans ringing the court with his first two "ooohh!"-inspiring dunks — going between his legs on the first, then windmilling over a player seated under the basket in the second round.

Now, jumping over folks has long been a dunk-contest staple. But the 6-foot-3 Mostella took it up a notch by lining up three players, all close to 7 feet tall, in the key for the final round.

"I just wanted to try something," Mostella would later tell the Star-Advertiser’s Paul Honda.

The fans not already on their feet rose, camera phones at the ready. Mostella didn’t get quite enough elevation on his first attempt and went back to halfcourt to reload. This time he threw it down, buzzing the towers on his fly-by to the rim.

Don’t bother adding up the scores. This one was over.

Mostella claimed tournament MVP honors the following night and left behind an enduring image with his gravity-defying exhibition in the dunk contest, the annual crowd-pleasing addendum to the ‘Iolani Classic schedule.

This year’s ‘Iolani Classic — one of the nation’s premier early-season tournaments — opens today and runs through Saturday, with the dunk contest scheduled for Friday following the semifinal games.

Glenn Young, the ‘Iolani Classic’s founder and tournament director, had to talk Mostella into participating in last year’s dunk contest, and ranked the performance among the best he’s seen. High praise considering the lineup of players who have dazzled the crowds at ‘Iolani with their athleticism and showmanship since Young added the contest within a couple years of the tournament’s inception in 1983.

"I thought it would be good for the kids in Hawaii to see these guys dunk because they don’t get to see very much of it," Young said.

Some of the best over the years have represented Oak Hill, one of the tournament’s frequent mainland visitors. Josh Smith captured the 2003 title before going on to win the NBA slam dunk contest in 2005 with the Atlanta Hawks. Ben McLemore, now of the Sacramento Kings, won in 2010, and Alex Sanders provided one of the contest’s signature dunks in his duel with Felipe Lopez in 1992.

Given the cozy dimensions of ‘Iolani’s gym, many have initiated dunks with a pass off the gym’s back wall. But perhaps none more impressively than Sanders.

"People have done it lately, but they throw it off the wall and let it bounce," said ‘Iolani coach Dean Shimamoto, a junior at the school back then. "(Sanders) threw it off the wall, caught it on the fly and reversed it."

Montrose Christian also makes regular trips to the Classic, and Justin Anderson endeared himself as a crowd favorite while competing in three dunk contests. On his winning dunk in 2011, Anderson gathered some ‘Iolani youngsters under the basket. After Anderson soared over them, the kids mobbed the Virginia signee as he lay on the court.

Oklahoma City superstar Kevin Durant and Toronto Raptors swingman Terrence Ross also competed in the contest with Montrose Christian. Ross — the NBA’s reigning slam dunk champion — twice finished second, to Samuel Thompson of Whitney Young (Ill.) in 2008 and to Brandon Peters of Yates (Texas) in ’09.

"We were counting the amount of guys that are now in the NBA and we’re saying, ‘We saw that guy’ or ‘That’s an ‘Iolani Classic alumnus,’ " Shimamoto said. "Not just the ‘OK’ guys; these are stars.

"In a lot of cases, our guys got to play against them (in the tournament), so it’s a lasting memory forever."

The latest tournament field features seven local teams — Kailua, Kaiser, Kamehameha, Moanalua, Radford and ‘Iolani’s Division I and II teams — plus seven mainland teams representing three time zones and one each from China and Okinawa.

Four seniors enter the tournament ranked in ESPN’s Top 100, led by No. 11 Kevon Looney of Hamilton (Milwaukee, Wisc.), a UCLA signee. Leron Black (No. 41) and Chris Chiozza (No. 42) of White Station (Memphis, Tenn.), signed with Illinois and Florida, respectively. No. 66 Victor Law of St. Rita of Cascia (Chicago) is headed to Northwestern. St. Rita’s Charles Matthews is ranked 11th among juniors.