When John Shurna’s phone rang Saturday morning, he was not expecting to hear Billy McKinney’s voice on the other end.
The former Wildcats guard was the school’s leader in career points entering Northwestern’s contest with Minnesota on Saturday. With Shurna just 16 points behind the 1,900 points McKinney put up in his four-year career from 1974 to 1977, McKinney called the senior forward to wish him good luck and to remind him to have fun.
About 12 hours after that phone call, Shurna took control of the record and in his usual humble way said he was happier the Cats beat the Golden Gophers, 64-53, than he was about now holding NU’s record for career points.
“Obviously it’s an honor,” Shurna said. “But it was more important that we defended our home court against a good Minnesota team.”
The shots did not fall for Shurna early, as two of his attempts rimmed out and a third was rejected near the basket. The senior had no points in the first 16 minutes of the game, and it looked like the celebration would be on hold. But then Andre Hollins tried to swing the ball across the court.
The Minnesota guard’s ill-advised pass was intercepted by Shurna, who hammered the ball through the hoop for the first of his 18 points of the night. The roar of the crowd seemed to inject some life into Shurna, who used the last four minutes of the first half to score 12 points, including two 3-pointers which hit nothing but net and got the crowd on its feet.
“It’s nice to get a layup and see the ball go in the basket,” Shurna said. “I wasn’t really focused on trying to score points. I had the hot hand going on for a little while there, and (my teammates) were finding me in areas to score.”
The 12-point outburst helped extend NU’s lead from 3 to as much as 11 points as the Cats firmly took control of the game. In the second half, tensions were high as the senior inched closer and closer to the record. With just over 13 minutes remaining, Shurna went to the line for two free throws and made only one, leaving him a point shy of the record. The clock showed 10 minutes and 48 seconds remaining.
Anybody who was not watching the court easily could have figured out what happened. Welsh-Ryan Arena erupted as Shurna buried a 3-pointer from the top of the arc, setting the new school record for career points at 1,902 and counting. The student section held up giant posters of the number “24” and Shurna’s face and chanted his name for a minute or so after the basket. The tribute was something the always-attentive Shurna said he was pleased to see.
“We’ve had really great fan support all four years I’ve been here,” Shurna said. “It was good to get the record at home. I think it made it more special.”
Although Shurna’s legacy has yet to be written, with four regular season games remaining plus whatever postseason the Cats play in, the impact he has made on the program is profound. Coach Bill Carmody said when Shurna arrived at NU as a freshman, Carmody knew what type of scorer he could be. Carmody said he might have made a mistake playing Shurna for only 18 minutes per game in his freshman year when he averaged 7.3 points per game.
Freshman guard Dave Sobolewski summed it up by saying he was privileged to play with Shurna for a year.
“Looking back on my career when I’m older, I’m sure I’ll be telling people that I played with the all-time leading scorer (at NU),” Sobolewski said.
