1,000 Ways To Score: Davion Thompson achieves significant milestone in sophomore year at Bolingbrook

Joel Embiid. Luka Doncic. Zion Williamson. Those players needed 50 games to record 1,000 career points in their NBA careers.

Fifty games. That’s how long Bolingbrook’s Davion Thompson needed to do it in high school.

OK, so defense at the high school level isn’t the same as the NBA. That doesn’t change the fact that many high school players only dream of surpassing 1,000 points in their careers and Thompson did it 19 games into his sophomore season.

Oh, yeah, he’s still just a sophomore.

Thompson joined the 1,000-point club with a 23-point performance against Joliet Central last week, a 72-26 victory for the Raiders. The magnitude of reaching such a mark this early in his career wasn’t lost on him.

“It felt great,” Thompson told the Herald-News on Tuesday. “It’d been a goal of mine before my freshman season. Being able to accomplish one of those milestones early on in my career is a big accomplishment.”

A big accomplishment, but not an unexpected one. Despite not graduating for another two years, Thompson is considered one of the top prospects in the nation for his grade. Rivals.com has the 6-foot-2 guard rated as the 26th overall player in the country for the Class of 2027.

Thompson already holds offers from Illinois and Michigan. He’s visited Michigan State, where former Joliet West star Jeremy Fears Jr. plays, as well as Indiana. UConn and Tennessee also have shown interest.

None of this is a shock to Raiders coach Rob Brost, who has coached plenty of great players in his time.

“The way he goes about his business and handles himself is impressive for a person his age,” Brost said. “His efficiency at shooting the basketball is particularly impressive. He scored 31 points on 11 shots in a game last season. He had another game where he had 27 points on nine shots. That’s really elite, and elite probably is an understatement.

“Off the court, his ability to handle everything a kid that age has to handle as far as attention and things that come his way is impressive. That’s difficult to do, and he’s done a really good job of handling that.”

Thompson is averaging 24 points, six rebounds and three assists per game. Brost points out those numbers could be even larger, but at 20-2, the Raiders have often built up large enough leads that Thompson saw little court time in the second half.

As for that efficiency Brost mentioned, he’s shooting 64% from two-point range and 53% from beyond the 3-point line.

Thompson’s pretty darn good at basketball, if that wasn’t clear yet. The 20-2 record should tell you that the Raiders as a team are good at basketball, too.

Brost will tell you it’s not just Thompson. Heck, Thompson will tell you it’s not just him.

JT Pettigrew is committed to play collegiately for Valparaiso. His brother Brady is a freshman and, like Thompson, has earned national attention for his class. Brost also was selected recently to be a member of the Nike Hoop Summit coaching staff, a national event attended by NBA scouts. Brost also mentioned his son, junior guard Trey Brost, as one of the top players in his class.

“The support system is great,” Thompson said. “Coach Brost is a great coach, and I have amazing teammates. They give me the ball in many spots on the floor for me to score. The fans, atmosphere, coaching staff. Just about everybody here is amazing. It’s all about loving each other and seeing each other do better. It’s a great environment to have.”

Last year the Raiders finished 26-5 and were the only 4A team in the Herald-News area to make the sectional finals. The top seed in their sectional, they were defeated by second-seeded Downers Grove North 69-52 to end their season.

This year, their only losses so far were to Peoria, 58-56 in the second game of the season, and a 72-71 defeat to Brother Rice on Dec. 21. They’ve won 11 games in a row since then.

As Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and so many others have said before, however, the job is not finished.

“A lot of people don’t believe this, but we don’t ever talk about our record or how many wins we have,” Brost said. “We only talk about improving and getting better. That’s the goal this time of year, to get better each day.”

The Raiders still are chasing that elusive state championship. They’ve never won in boys basketball and are looking to make it back to state for the first time since 2022. Thompson said his goal before freshman year was to reach 1,000 points, so now he’s got his sights set on another goal.

“I want to win a state championship,” Thompson said. “Last year we came up short. We’ve held that grudge from last year into this year, so we’ve just got to go win a state championship.”