For a dose of friendly competition and to settle on-going debate, senior Rod Sherman and junior Carlton Guyton played in a contest to see who was the best at 3-point shooting.

After some practice shots, the trash talking began.

“I’m going to win,” Sherman said. “Confidence is a stain you can’t wipe off, and I’m feeling very confident right now, so I’m going to win. Plus, I’ve been beating him all day, so I might as well keep it going.”

But before the guards could start their best-of-10 competition, sophomore guard Randal Holt decided he wanted to join in too.

“I don’t want to play against him!” Guyton said.

They let Holt play anyway, but he had to go first without practicing.

Holt stepped up to the top right corner and missed his first shot. Shaking it off, he made three of the next four shots and sealed the deal with attempt number nine.

When Guyton sank his first basket, the other two competitors looked like they were in trouble. But he only made two more shots after that.

After Sherman sank three of his first six shots, he said, “I’m beating Scooty. Now, I’m about to beat Randal.”

Instead, the senior tied Holt with five baskets, and they moved onto a best-of-five tiebreaker.

Holt sank his final two attempts, but Sherman only made one basket, making Holt the winner.

“The champ is here!” Holt yelled, slamming the ball off the court.

But if Holt joined the game last minute, is it really fair that he won?

“No!” Sherman yelled. “It wasn’t fair because I was supposed to win!”

Holt laughed and agreed with his teammate.

“If I was Rod or I was Carlton, I wouldn’t want me in the competition either,” Holt said.

All three agreed that the contest was a fun way for the teammates to compete with each other.

But Guyton was still upset.

“I feel terrible because I came in last,” he said.

Obviously, he was joking.

While shooting a solid 41.2 percent from behind the arc in real games kind of puts his shooting in perspective, Guyton said it also means his opponents always run at him when he gets in three-point range.

Three-pointers do come in handy when Kent State players like junior forward Justin Greene get double-teamed inside the paint.

“It’s a good thing (Holt) won because him beating us gave him confidence,” Sherman said. “We need him to have that going into the game. We need him to hit those 3’s.”

Holt hit two key 3-pointers against Akron on March 4 that helped maintain a Kent State lead.

Late entry or not, Holt’s winning seems justified.

Either way, the players said it was nice to play around for fun after their hard, serious training for the MAC Tournament.

Contact Rachel Jones at [email protected].