BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Chris Thompson, who played basketball at Bradford High School, was inducted into the University of Southern Indiana Athletic Hall of Fame on Feb. 7.
Thompson, who first went to Pasco-Hernando State College after graduating from BHS in 2001, played two years for USI and was the Screaming Eagles’ leading scorer and rebounder as a senior during the 2005-06 season. He was the Great Lakes Valley Conference Co-Player of the Year in 2005-06. That same year, he also earned first-team All-American and All-Region accolades from Daktronics and Basketball Times as well as being named the Midwest Player of the Year by Daktronics.
The first-team All-GLVC selection was named NCAA II Player of the Month twice in 2005-06.
Thompson started in 18 games during his first season at USI and played in all 32. He was the leading scorer in four games. Thompson averaged 11.3 points per game, scoring 362 total. His high-point total for the season was 28 in a 97-70 win over Olivet Nazarene on Nov. 15, 2004.
The former Tornado shot 60 percent from the field and made 46 percent of his three-point attempts. He also shot 73 percent from the foul line.
Thompson led the team in rebounds in 20 games and finished with a team-high 293 for the season (9.2-per-game average). He grabbed his season-high of 15 rebounds twice: in an 87-66 win over Indianapolis on Nov. 26, 2004, and in an 80-67 win over Northern Kentucky on Feb. 3, 2005.
In 2005-06, Thompson started all l34 of the Screaming Eagles’ games. He scored a team-high 622 points (18.3-per-game-average) and was the team’s leading scorer in all but 12 games. Thompson scored 20 points or more in 14 games, posting a season high of 35 in an 88-71 win over Caldwell on Nov. 11, 2005.
Thompson shot 62 percent from the field and made 46 percent of his three-point attempts, which led the team. He also made 78 percent of his free throws.
By season’s end, Thompson had grabbed a team-high 332 rebounds (9.8-per-game average). He was the leading rebounder in all but seven games and posted his season high of 15 three times: in a 95-70 win over Indianapolis on Jan. 26, 2006, an 80-52 win over Missouri-St. Louis on Feb. 25, 2006, and a 71-80 loss to Saint Joseph’s on March 3, 2006.
Thompson has the eighth-most career rebounds at USI with 625. He’s also second in career double-doubles with 28.
At BHS, Thompson scored 1,550 points, which broke Marvin Blye’s school record of 1,379. He earned team MVP honors his junior and senior seasons and was the Florida Athletic Coaches Association’s Class 3A Player of the Year as a senior.
During his junior year, the Tornadoes went 23-6, advancing to the Class 3A regional finals before losing 58-57 to Ribault. Thompson had 14 points in that game.
Bradford was the District 3 runner-up that year. The Tornadoes got 18 points from Thompson in defeating Hamilton County 59-40 in a district semifinal game before losing 65-53 to Baker County in the championship game, which included 11 points from Thompson.
Thompson scored nine points in a 56-37 regional quarterfinal win over Paxon and then poured in 29 points in a 68-47 semifinal win over Walton that put the Tornadoes into the finals round and the matchup against Ribault.
The Tornadoes went 26-5 in Thompson’s senior year, which also saw Bradford advance to the regional finals before its season ended.
Bradford opened play in the District 4-3A tournament with a 78-43 quarterfinal win over Baldwin in which Thompson scored 27 points. Thompson then had 11 points in a 72-71 semifinal win over Hamilton County.
The district-championship game went into overtime before Bradford came out on top of Baker County 68-62. Thompson scored 29 points.
Thompson had 32 points as the Tornadoes opened the regional playoffs with a 64-58 quarterfinal win over Shanks. Bradford defeated Chipley 70-67 in the semifinal round, getting 21 points from Thompson.
Bradford faced Baker County in the regional finals, with the Wildcats winning 65-58. Thompson had 12 points.
