All you had to know about Eddy Curry’s performance Friday was etched on his left arm.
“Beast Among Men” is inscribed above a tattoo of a scary-looking, powerful figure.
Too often, Curry has been criticized for not dominating the way a 6-foot-11-inch, 290-pound center should. But on a night when Bulls General Manager Jerry Krause and scouts from the Toronto Raptors were in the stands, Curry erupted for a career-high 43 points to go with 19 rebounds and six blocked shots in leading No. 1 Thornwood to a 69-57 victory over No. 5 Shepard.
On Dec. 15, Shepard (17-3, 4-3) held Curry without a basket. Curry critics had a field day, saying the Thornwood standout wasn’t ready for the NBA if he couldn’t score against Shepard’s double-team defense of 6-4 Mike Hall and 6-1 Jon Cleveland.
All week, Curry had to endure the slings and arrows from his own teammates.
“We kept teasing him about that,” said Thunderbirds forward Melvin Buckley, who contributed 17 points and five assists.
“They called me overrated and stuff like that,” Curry said. “Melvin has his ways. But he’d better be close to the door when he says stuff like that.”
Even with Curry dominating all over the court in South Holland, Shepard led for most of the game behind the outside shooting of Mike Smith (13 points), Hall (11), Brian Nievera (11) and Lorenzo Yelder (10). The Astros led 35-30 at halftime, but only 46-45 after three quarters as Curry had 14 points in the third quarter.
“It was a little tense because when we’d score a basket, and they would come back and hit a three,” Curry said. “But in the fourth quarter, we started getting in their faces and challenging them on defense. We finally started rebounding and boxing out.
“Shepard is a great team. They are playing their best basketball right now. Shepard is going to sneak up on a lot more teams.”
The victory lifted Thornwood’s overall record to 18-1, and at 7-0, the Thunderbirds clinched a share of the SICA East title.
Shepard coach Tony Chiuccariello said the difference from the first time when the Astros lost 46-36 was that Hall didn’t get help quickly enough while checking Curry.
“Eddy’s the kind of player where you’ll never do that again,” Chiuccariello said. “He is a very special player. Last time we had two guys sagging off on him with a third ready to help out.”
Hall noticed a big difference in Curry’s stamina.
“I think he was in much better shape this time,” Hall said. “I read about how he is in a conditioning program now. I also did a poor job fronting the post.”
“The revenge part was sweet,” Curry said. “It felt good going to the free throw line knowing you’re not going to miss.
“It was one of those nights when everything kept falling for me.”
