Princeton – Hannah Perdue couldn’t buy a shot for 36 minutes Friday night.
The PikeView all-state guard and Concord signee struggled mightily, finishing Friday’s contest against county rival Princeton shooting just 3 of 20 from the field.
She never stopped shooting.
“You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take,” she quipped with a smile after the game.
Struggling from the field, she still found a way to score when the Panthers needed it.
With her team trailing 41-39, the senior guard drove down the lane, drawing a shooting foul with 3.3 seconds left in regulation. She calmly stepped to the line and canned both foul shots to force overtime, eventually nailing three more free throws in the extra period as the Panthers escaped Princeton with a 47-46 win Friday night.
Perdue’s free throws capped a 10-0 run in the final three minutes of regulation, giving the Panthers an unlikely shot at victory.
“We couldn’t buy a basket and everything was rimming out,” PikeView assistant coach Bobby Wyatt, who was filling in for daughter Tracy Raban who was absent due to illness, said after the game. “Inside shots, outside shots and shots that were eight-footers that we usually make, we couldn’t nail them. We finally had a couple go but I called timeout and said ‘Look girls, we’re down seven here and we’ve got two minutes left so we’ve got to go full-court pressure, man-to-man and see what they’re made of.’ We got a couple of turnovers and the next thing you know we’re back in the game.”
To Wyatt’s point neither team had much success finding the bottom of the net. Both squads struggled to pull the lid off the basket, shooting a combined 19 percent from the floor on 44 attempts in the opening half. The third quarter yielded little more success with Princeton taking a 21-18 advantage into the final frame.
Then all of a sudden it clicked.
A pair of free throws from Kylie Conner and a 3-pointer from Reagan Southers to open the fourth staked the hosts to their largest lead of the game to that point at 26-19.
“I thought overall our energy was better than it’s been in a long time,” Princeton coach Matt Smith said. “We finally had a couple shots go in and we kind of got back to playing fast and aggressive but we had confidence. We believed in each other a little more than we had been. We had that little run and a nice lead.”
The deficit might as well have been insurmountable given the offensive struggles. It instead ignited the hosts. A layup from Anyah Brown, a pair of free throws from Perdue and a three-point play from freshman Riley Meadows quickly knotted the game at 26. After trading buckets on their next two possessions the Tigers started to pull away, ripping off a 13-2 run, spurred in part by six points from Maddie Stull.
It forced the visitors into a 41-31 hole.
Perdue and Meadows had an answer, converting back-to back three-point plays. Another bucket from Meadows slashed it to two with under a minute left but her fifth foul forced her to the bench for the remainder of the contest while also giving the Tigers the chance to close it out at the line.
They didn’t capitalize, missing four straight free throws in the final minute and turning the ball over on the baseline with under 10 seconds left while clinging to a two-point lead.
Perdue took the inbounds pass, dribbled the length of the floor and charged the lane, drawing the foul with three seconds left. Her first free throw swished through the net but her second hit the front of the rim, bounced to the back of it and dropped in, tying the game in front of her future Concord teammates.
“I was sick when it rattled,” Perdue laughed. “But it fell through and I was happy I got it.”
With 3.3 seconds left and PV trailing 41-39 Perdue is fouled and goes to the line. She knocks down both friendly bounce leaves some suspense.#wvgirlsbb pic.twitter.com/gO82VtPyCK
— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) February 5, 2022
“We had a couple lapses defensively,” Smith said. “I can’t see 90 feet away. I guess we were a little late coming over to give help and gave them a couple easy buckets. I think they were shooting their second and-1 30 seconds after we built our lead. That hurt. I can’t see from so far away but I guess we were just a second late there. We haven’t been in game in so long that we forgot what it takes to go over the top and that starts with the coaches.”
Princeton struck first in the extra period on a bucket from Autumn Bane but Perdue answered immediately on the other end.
Brown gave the Panthers the lead for good when she made the front end of a pair of free throws later in the frame but missed the second. Brooke Craft was there to secure the offensive rebound, kicking out to Perdue who iced the game by converting on three of her four foul shots down the stretch.
“I had to take over and it’s not easy I can tell you that much” Perdue said. “It’s not like I don’t trust my players, I just had to take over as a leader which I feel like was expected of me. I was struggling really bad so it was nice to get those shots to drop.”
Perdue led all scorers with 17 points while Meadows and Brown each scored 10. Brown finished with her second consecutive double-double, also securing 10 rebounds.
Sadie Boggess led Princeton with 10 points in the loss.
PikeView improves to 8-5 and will travel to Westside on Saturday. Princeton will travel to Summers County on Tuesday.
Email: Tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
PV: 6 5 7 23 6 – 47
P: 5 7 9 20 5 – 46
PikeView
Hannah Harden 4, Brooke Craft 6, Hannah Perdue 17, Anyah Brown 10, Riley Meadows 10
Princeton
Kylie Conner 2, Maddie Stull 8, Autumn Bane 9, Reagan Southers 3, Lauren Parish 2, Kaleb Wright 3, Kalyn Davis 9, Sadie Boggess 10
3-point goals – PV: 1 (Perdue); P: 3 (Bane, Southers, Boggess)