Houston, Feb 17 (IANS): Rising star Terrence Ross, wearing the jersey of former Toronto Raptors star Vince Carter, regained for Toronto the dunking contest champion at the NBA All Star Slam Dunk competition here.

"I think it's just paying homage to the guys who did this before me. It's a blessing to be here," said Ross Saturday.

The freshmen reminded the audience about what Carter did in the 2000 classic contact in which the former icon of the Toronto City won the dunking championship.

Ross didn't show the best of himself at the very beginning. He tried four times to finish his first dunk but received a perfect 50-point check because of his effort. The next dunk wasn't a difficult one for the 22-year-old but he wasted no time to finish it and was rewarded 49 points, one point shy of 50.

The final battle was between Ross and the defending champion Jeremy Evans of Utah Jazz. Ross did a good job in both attempts. He copied Carter's brand show in his first dunk, and then jumped over a kid, who was unveiled as Twitter CEO Dick Costolo's son Micheal Costolo, to finish his final dunk.

"My agent set that up for me. He found a young ballboy I could use and I thought it would be perfect," said Ross.

Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers took the three point shooting title after beating Spurs big size shooter Matt Bonner 23-20 in the close rivalry. Damian Lillard from Portland Trail Blazers snatched the first place of skill challenge.

Chris Bosh, Swin Cash and Dominique Wilkins teamed to win the Shooting Stars phase. The West team outscored the East team 140-125 after four competition periods.