Commentary: All-American

guard steals the spotlight
By Steve Behr, sports editor

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — A local restaurant offered free buffalo wings to any customer who bought an entree if Davidson’s Stephen Curry scored at least 25 points in a game.

Actually, it was five wings if he scored 25 points and 10 free wings if he scored 30. After Curry torched Appalachian State for 43 Saturday afternoon in the Wildcats’ 84-68 victory in the quarterfinals of the Southern Conference Tournament, the joint should offer an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Curry did what every All-American is supposed to do, find a way to lift his team to a win. True, Andrew Lovedale scored 17 in support of the junior guard. But Davidson needed Curry to come up big on a night when no other player, except for Lovedale, scored more than six points.

Curry made 11-of-18 shots. Lovedale made 7-of-12. The rest of the Wildcats made 6-of-27.

On a night that Dennis Haskins, known to most of us as Mr. Belding in the television series “Saved by the Bell,” returned to his native Chattanooga to watch some hoops (he’s also a friend of College of Charleston coach Bobby Cremins), Curry was still the biggest news of the day.

While everybody was talking about Curry, Appalachian State’s Donald Sims wasn’t exactly chopped liver. Sims scored 29 points in his typical fashion, making 5-of-10 shots from 3-point range and all 12 of his foul shots.

No free food was given away as a result.

No matter. Sims was the smooth scorer that the Mountaineers will need going into the 2009-10 season. He can hit from anywhere on the court, including driving to the basket. And he’s one of the best free throw shooters in the conference.

Sims will get plenty of chances to play the palace. Appalachian State returns a battle-tested team that played in five overtime games this year and returns all but one senior, guard Eduardo Bermudez.

They’ve got a solid inside game with Ike Butts, Josh Hunter, Andre Williamson, Tyler Webb and Quinche Dowdell. Sims, Kellen Brand, Jeremi Booth and A.J. Highsmith can all hit the 3-ball, and Donterious Hughes and freshmen guards Marcus Wright improved steadily as the season went along.

But Saturday night, Curry stole the show. His 30-foot 3-pointer toward the end of the game, with the shot clock winding down and with Wright doing everything but cracking him over the head with a baseball bat to stop him, brought the McKenzie Arena house down.

What makes Curry so tough to guard is that he can do so much more than shoot from the outside. Curry is just as effective driving to the basket and either getting to the foul line or converting a layup as he is knocking down 3-pointers.

In fact, he converted 16-of-18 foul shots, several of them after just missing layups after taking drives to the basket.

It was the Stephen Curry that 8,350 fans at the Holmes Center earlier in the season didn’t get to see. Curry got into foul trouble in Davidson’s 70-52 win over Appalachian State during the regular season and scored just 16 points in 18 minutes.

Curry still got into foul trouble Saturday, which is probably why he didn’t score 50 on the Mountaineers. Appalachian State coach Houston Fancher has the right idea when dealing with Curry.

Hear me out on this one.

Fancher’s philosophy is to make Curry work hard while playing defense on the other side of the court. In the first meeting, Curry had two fouls by the 15-minute mark of the first half and headed to the bench.

On Saturday, Curry picked up his second foul with 9:26 left in the first half and went to the pines with 16 points. Had he scored four more points overall, it would have been the most given up by the Mountaineers this season.

Instead, that honor still belongs to Kentucky’s Jody Meeks, who scored 46 in the Wildcats’ win over ASU in Louisville, Ky. back in December.

But Meeks had enough of a supporting cast around him to occupy Appalachian State’s defense. Outside of Lovedale, it was a long day, at least scoring-wise, for the rest of the Wildcats.

The rest of the NCAA found out what the Southern Conference already knew during Davidson’s run to the Elite Eight. They learned that they better guard No. 30 at all times, or they’ll go home early.

If home is Chattanooga, at least they’ll get free food out of it.