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BALTIMORE — Anthony Higgs and LaQuill Hardnett are fed up with the stigma surrounding Perry Hall basketball. Since the beginning of last season, they’ve tried to prove the abysmal history is in the rear view mirror, and manifest it’s new wave of talent.
Even after a Class 4A state semifinal appearance in March, Hardnett and Higgs were told all week prior to Thursday’s match-up with No. 2 Baltimore Poly how they were the underdog. It gave the Gators “something more to prove,” Higgs says, and did it ever.
Behind Hardnett’s near triple-double (16 points, 12 rebounds and six assists) and Higgs’ 24 points, No. 3 Pery Hall throttled No. 2 Baltimore Poly in front of a sold-out home crowd, 83-60.
“Everybody thought we were underdogs tonight, too,” Hardnett said. “I just don’t understand. … I don’t know when people are going to learn we’re not underdogs.”
Last year, Perry Hall (6-0) topped Baltimore Poly on a last second tip-in from Higgs, 61-59. So when they heard all they chatter, they rolled into Thursday with the same mindset last year of proving those doubts wrong. Gators coach George Panageotou noticed the intense focus in the pregame locker room driven by the stigma and lingering stench outsiders still smell from the 8-15 season in 2014-15.
“They just have it in them,” Panageotou said. “The bigger the game, they come out and they just want to prove something. They prove it to themselves, the other team, the fans.”
The Engineers (4-2) only led once, 4-2, when Deshaun Mosley glided into the lane for a transition layup 58 seconds into regulation. That was it. Baltimore got into an early hole that only got bigger when they went 0-for-6 from beyond the arc in first half, which led to quick points in transition for Perry Hall.
The Gators held a 14-5 lead after eight minutes. Hardnett’s six of 16 points came in the first quarter.
Perry Hall took a 20-7 lead one minute and 39 seconds into the second on Hartnett’s 3-point-play. Poly responded with a 7-0 run on a De’Vondre Perry (Temple recruit) pull-up 3-pointer and free throws from Demetrious Mims and Perry to bring the Engineers to six points, 20-14, and the closest they got.
The Gators held a 36-25 halftime lead, where Panageotou continued to hammer home the mantra of dictating the tempo with his long, athletic lineup spearheaded by the 6-foot-9 Hardnett and the 6-foot-8 Higgs.
“That’s the thing, they’re not the old school big guys,” Panageotou said. “They can handle the ball, they can pass the ball, they can shoot the ball. We can do so many other things because of them.”
Two treys from James Rider and Higgs and a fast-break layup from Tyler Holley gave Perry Hall a 44-31 lead two minutes into the third. The Gators then held Poly scoreless for nearly seven minutes (6:15 in the third to 7:19 in the fourth) using a 2-3 zone.
Perry Hall went on an 18-0 run over that span to hold a commanding 62-31 lead.
Anchored by the long Hardnett and Higgs, Rider, a 6-foot-3 point guard, and Darrell Green, a 6-foot-4 forward, disjointed a high-powered Poly offense on a night where the Engineers shot 35.3 percent from the floor (18-for-51) and committed 18 turnovers.
“Definitely want to give Perry Hall some credit,” Poly head coach Sam Brand said. “We definitely did some things that didn’t help our own cause. For whatever reason, our guys wouldn’t run our stuff. We got into a lot of 1-on-1’s against a team that players great together as a group.
“That recipe is trouble. We got our tails handed to us because of that.”
Perry paced Poly with 17 points and 14 points and three assists, but turned the ball over five times. Mims had 14 points, six rebounds and six blocks for the Engineers. Haley had 15 points, and Fredo Carter pitched in with 11 points (3 of 5 from behind the arc) and four rebounds off the bench.
Perry Hall shot 49.1 percent on 28-for-57 shooting
“All those articles we see, ‘Perry Hall, underdog,’ this and that. That puts right into the gym,” Hardnett started. “and this is what comes out.”
