LBSU students win $5,000 in Big West ShootOut

Despite the men’s basketball team’s season-ending loss last weekend, two Long Beach State students still became Big West Conference champions.

Sophomore Clarissa Diaz and fourth-year student Alfonso Reyes teamed up last Saturday to win the 2009 Big West ShootOut. The co-ed duo won a grand prize of $5,000 between the two of them.

“It felt good,” Diaz said after she found out they won. “I jumped on Alfonso. I just couldn’t believe it.”

The victory took place at the Big West championship game between the University of Pacific and Cal State Northridge.

“I was pretty nervous,” Reyes said. “My hands kept sweating.”

In spite of boo’s from Northridge fans, the two students scored 15 points to beat LBSU rival Cal State Fullerton by one point.

The Big West ShootOut is an annual campus-wide tour for students who attend institutions in the Big West Conference. The competition consisted of teams of two students who shot from six different spots on the court in a 30-second timeframe.

The road to the championship was not an easy one. Reyes and Diaz first had to get past 90 teams from LBSU for the spot to represent the university.

Once they won LBSU’s shootout, they traveled to Anaheim to take on eight other teams from Big West universities. Three rounds later, they were crowned Big West ShootOut champions.

The duo always believed they had a chance of winning it all.

“I knew it was going to be a long, long road to get that money,” Diaz said. “I had a feeling we had a good chance, though.”

A day after the victory, Reyes and Diaz did what professional teams do after they win a championship: go to Disneyland.

“We had to celebrate our win the right way,” Diaz said.

The shooting duo has not decided what they are going to spend all of their money on, but they have some ideas.

“I am going to pay some bills and buy a Manny Ramirez Dodgers jersey,” Reyes said.

His teammate also wants to purchase something from a Los Angeles professional team.

“I’m most likely going to get some Lakers [NBA] Finals tickets,” Diaz said.

Reyes and Diaz look forward to competing again in next year’s Big West ShootOut.