An alley-oop thrown to Tim Bond brought down the house in Baltimore, Md., Monday night.
The 6-foot-7 guard graduated from City College High School in, “The Greatest City in America,” as Baltimore is nicknamed, where he led his high school team to a 27-0 record and a 3A state championship in 2014.
“High school; it’s just the atmosphere, it’s like a high level division one college game to me,” Bond said. “Fans are always screaming and booing other teams and they get yelling. I just love the atmosphere.”
That type of atmosphere carried over into this game as Bond would get the loudest ovation of any of the players in the arena that day, which included the Coppin State University players.
“I know how much he means to the city of Baltimore,” EMU coach Rob Murphy said.
Hundreds of people ranging from family, friends, classmates, community members and all-around fans came out to watch their hometown hero in person again.
“It felt like a home game, to be honest,” Bond said. “Every time we scored we heard the crowd and whenever Coppin [State] scored you didn’t really hear anybody.”
“I had a lot of fun playing,” Bond said. “The family came out to support. I heard them throughout the whole game.”
Bond scored 14-points in his return as well as compiling four rebounds, a couple steals and assists. He also had a monstrous block on a Coppin State breakaway in Eastern Michigan’s 73-62 win.
Bond and the Eagles improved to 7-4 on the season and will return home on Monday, Dec. 28 to take on Detroit Mercy at 7 p.m.
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