Nothing could stop Curry

RALEIGH, N.C. – Select teams for a schoolyard pick-up game – without watching each other warm up – and Stephen Curry might well be the last player chosen.

Standing 6-foot-3, weighing a mere 185 pounds, and sporting a boyish grin that would prompt most ticket takers to ban him from an R-rated movie, Davidson College’s sophomore shooting guard is far from physically imposing.

But on Friday afternoon, in front of a national television audience, Curry’s shooting led the 10th-seeded Wildcats to an 82-76 win over seventh-seeded Gonzaga in the opening round of the NCAA tournament.

Curry, who came into the game averaging 25.1 points per game, lit up the Bulldogs for 40 points in an entertaining game that played out in front of a large, appreciative crowd in the RBC Center.

Using a quick release that sometimes resembles a volleyball set and seemingly unlimited range, the Southern Conference’s player of the year knocked down one tough shot after another in handing GU its second straight first-round tournament defeat.

He made 8 of 10 3-pointers and picked up several big buckets in scramble situations to impress his teammates and the Gonzaga players charged with trying to defend him.

“He never ceases to amaze us with the crazy shots he hits,” Wildcats backup forward Stephen Rossiter said of Curry. “He’s been doing it since he got here and he just keeps getting better, which is the best part.”

The Bulldogs used nearly every defensive plan imaginable to slow down Davidson’s hot hand, but they failed.

Freshman Steven Gray did most of the heavy lifting against Curry when the Zags were playing man, but juniors Jeremy Pargo and Micah Downs also got their chances, only to watch well-defended, hand-in-your-face shots float just out of their reach and into the net.

Even the Curry-conscious zone and triangle-and-two GU employed at times during the game did little to rein him in.

“He reminds me of like a (Dan) Dickau,” Bulldogs coach Mark Few said of Curry, whose point total was 12 more than the Zags had previously allowed an opponent to score this season. “He has a nice, high pocket, very simple shot and doesn’t need space or time to get it off.”

GU’s senior forward David Pendergraft also had plenty of praise for the guy who almost single-handedly dropped the curtain on his collegiate career.

“As just a pure shooter, he’s unbelievable,” Pendergraft said. “His shot, he’s shooting it from 24 feet way, but it seems like he’s shooting from 5 because of how soft it is. It’s still a set shot, but he gets it off so quick and it’s just so soft.

“Steven (Gray) was draped all over him all game long, and he still gets 40. Even if he misses a little bit right or left, the ball stays on the rim and usually falls in, just because of how soft he shoots it.”

Gray, who finished with a career-high 21 points despite spending so much energy trying to track down Curry, said he did all he could to make each shot a challenge.

But the way Curry’s teammates were so willing to set screens and look for him on the perimeter whenever he was open, made that difficult.

“Personally, I don’t know if I (ever) ran off that many screens trying to defend someone,” Gray said. “He sets them up very well. He’s very knowledgeable that way.”

GU’s junior center Josh Heytvelt said Curry’s performance reminded him of those the Zags used to get from former teammate Adam Morrison.

“Whenever Adam wanted to put the ball in the hoop, he did,” Heytvelt said. “And that’s kind of what Curry did to us today – and he didn’t even look like he was working too hard to do it.

“We tried to pressure him, bump him, get in his face and do all that stuff the entire game, but he’s a smart player, and none of it seemed to bother him.”