BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Western Washington University standout men's basketball player Kai Johnson has already made plenty of headlines as one of the top scorers in the nation, but now Kai has gone viral.
 
Johnson, who is averaging 22.2 points per game during his junior season to lead the Great Northwest Athletic Conference and rank in the top 10 in NCAA II, scored a game-high 23 points in the Vikings 78-62 win over Western Oregon on Saturday, February 3.
 
While Johnson made 10 field goals during the game, it was his highlight-reel dunk at the 9:48 mark in the second half that went viral. With WWU leading 56-43, Johnson drove the lane, made an up-and-under move, threw the ball off the backboard to himself and put down a two-handed dunk over a WOU defender.
 
The original highlight of the play generated over 36,000 views on the WWU Athletics Instagram account, reaching 17,000 accounts and receiving over 970 likes and 48 comments. A remix of the highlight-reel dunk received another 9,200 plays and reached over 5,000 accounts.
 
Later Saturday the dunk was selected as the No. 3 top play on ESPN Sportscenter, marking the second time in the last three seasons a WWU men's basketball play has received national acclaim. A game-winning half court buzzer beater by D'Angelo Minnis on February 17, 2022 was the top Sportscenter play.
 
You can watch a full replay of the dunk by Kai and the Top 10 Sportscenter segment on the WWU Athletics YouTube Page:


  WWU Athletics would like to give a special thanks to the staff at Western Oregon University, specifically Assistant AD for Communications Clayton Jones and WOU TV, for sharing the video highlights to make for a great moment for our student-athletes and program.