Rockford Guilford’s players were searching for pregame warm-up basketballs when they were directed to a cardboard box at courtside.
They began unwrapping the brand-new balls, smiling about the first-class treatment being doled out Saturday night at the fourth annual High School Hoops Showdown.
There was a big-event atmosphere at the MetroCentre, where the locals assembled to check out a high school basketball phenom known as Eddy Curry. Included in the crowd were Bulls scouts B.J. Armstrong and Pete Myers and ex-Rockford Boylan star Joe Tulley, who hours earlier had hit the game-winning three-pointer in DePaul’s victory over Temple.
What a MetroCentre crowd of 5,774 saw was a 6-foot-11-inch Curry who has undertaken a weightlifting and conditioning program that has reduced his weight to 290 pounds from the 320 he carried in last month’s St. Louis Shootout, when Curry was criticized by many for being out of shape.
An animated, energetic Curry put on a one-man dunk show in leading No. 1 Thornwood to a 77-52 rout of Guilford. Curry finished with 23 points, 15 rebounds and nine dunks, including a two-hand, backward, alley-oop off a lob from Jeremy Jones. In the second game of the double-header, Young lost to Rockford Boylan 64-49.
Thornwood coach Kevin Hayhurst had suggested that the Thunderbirds would benefit playing with a center who’s lighter on his feet, and has been personally supervising the workouts.
“Coach knows what’s best for the team,” Curry said. “I’ve been doing more running than anything else, with some weightlifting. I can feel a big difference because I don’t get tired as much. All of this makes me more valuable to the team.”
“He’s been losing some of that weight, but I hope the weight training doesn’t affect his shooting touch,” said Curry’s father, Eddy Curry Sr. “It seems like his free-throw shooting had been a little off recently.”
All phases of Thornwood’s game were running smoothly against Guilford (13-7). With 6-foot-6-inch junior Melvin Buckley emerging as a legitimate all-around threat, Thornwood (15-1) is punishing teams for double- and triple-teaming Curry.
On Saturday, Buckley had 19 points and eight rebounds, while Steve Sawyers contributed 12 points and eight boards. Thornwood outrebounded the smaller Vikings 45-20.
Curry’s supporting cast has begun playing with more confidence.
“Ever since we came back from 10 points down in the last two minutes to beat Marshall at the Bloomington-Normal Christmas tournament, we’ve been playing better,” Buckley said. “We knew Marshall is one of the best teams in the Public League, and coming back against them showed us we can beat anybody.”
Thornwood led 34-24 at halftime and put this one away with a Curry-inspired 18-7 run to enter the fourth quarter with a 54-33 lead.
“We shouldn’t be limited to playing just a half-court game,” Hayhurst said. “With Eddy getting all the rebounds, that gives us chances to get out and run. With Eddy in better shape, and with his 33-inch vertical leap, you can see what he is capable of.”
When questioned about his basketball future, Curry, who has orally committed to DePaul, said it’s college for now.
“I want to wait until after the season before I start focusing on making a decision,” Curry said about the widespread speculation that he will enter the NBA draft. “It would be tough to turn down millions of dollars.”
In the second game, Young (5-9) hung with Rockford Boylan (14-3) for three quarters but fell apart in the fourth. Boylan outscored the Dolphins 23-11 in the final eight minutes with Mike Britton and Eric Gillam leading the way.
Britton finished with a game-high 19 points along with eight rebounds, while Gillam had 15 points and 11 rebounds. Point guard Steve Harris added 14 points.
Young was led by point guard Christopher Hill with 13 points. Boylan made 6-of-13 from three-point range while Young hit only 1-of-17.
Young had appeared to be on the verge of turning its season around after victories over Manley and No. 4 Crane last week.
