Patrick Triplett Jr. is only a sophomore, but he's already making an impact for the St. Louis (Mo.) Bayless High Bronchos (yes, they misspell their team name and no, we don't know why) basketball team. A starter in only his second season, Triplett's all-around on court performances have justified the team's faith in pushing him into the starting lineup already.
Still, Triplett Jr. is more known for his strategic awareness than he is for his explosiveness. Or at least he was until he went up for the first dunk of his varsity high school career earlier in late January. That's when the scene you see below unfolded.
Not only did Triplett Jr. succeed in his first ever high school dunk attempt, he absolutely crushed a poster jam over an opponent, completely obliterating a St. Louis (Mo.) Crossroads High defender. In fact, the Crossroads player was so badly crushed, either physically or mentally, that he remained down on the court for a good 30 seconds after the dunk.
Even one of his teammates began to explode off the Crossroads bench when the dunk went through the net … until he remembered that it was one of his teammates who suffered the wrath of Triplett Jr.'s slam, not some distant NBA or NCAA defender.
To Triplett Jr.'s credit, as soon as he got over the initial shock of his poster jam he began to trot back up court like a good workmanlike forward or, perhaps more appropriately, like the son of a coach (Patrick Triplett Sr. is the Bayless coach).
Modesty aside, Triplett Jr.'s dunk was one of the best of the season, let alone an all-time great of a first-timer. It cast a major shadow over the rest of Bayless' 56-51 victory, not to mention Triplett Jr.'s 9 points in the win. The trick now will be finding a way to throw down another dunk that can even compare with his monstrous Crossroads slam.
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