Gardner – Last week was a banner one for PikeView all-stater Hannah Perdue.
The senior guard helped lead her team to two wins over Princeton and a win over Shady Spring that likely delivers the Panthers the top seed in their section. To make the week even sweeter she signed to play college basketball at Concord last Thursday.
For her accomplishments, Perdue has been named the Week 9 Lootpress Girls basketball Player of the Week by the Lootpress sportswriters.
The award is sponsored by The Law Offices of Brandon Steele and Bodyworks.
Oak Hill’s Samiah Lynch was the winner of the fan poll, narrowly edging out Wyoming East’s Hannah Blankenship. Both players set new records for votes for in the POTW fan poll.
Perdue averaged 18.6 points per game in helping the Panthers to a 3-0 record last week. While the first two wins came by double digits, the third was a struggle. With PikeView coach Tracy Raban absent with an illness, it was up to Perdue to help engineer a 10-point comeback that forced overtime in the second game of the week against Princeton.
Having a player of Perdue’s caliber eased Raban’s concerns.
“Hannah’s a leader,” Raban said. “Last year it was her getting to know me and me getting to know her and I think we’re to the point now where she knows her expectations and she knows what I expect of her. She’s our leader and I want the ball in her hands in crunch time and she wants it in her hands. We just kind of read off each other. She knows what I want and I know what she wants. We’re all the time calling the same plays. We got to know each other, we trust each other and she believes in me. It’s just a trust factor and she’s a floor general.”
The week served as good postseason prep for a PikeView team that’s challenged itself all season. Princeton was ranked No. 7 in Class AAAA poll prior to the two losses to Perdue’s Panthers and Shady Spring was a team that beat PikeView in the sectional championship last season.
“Hannah wants that challenge,” Raban said. “You have to want to be that clutch player that wants to be a leader and the other girls allow her to do it. They set her the screens and they get her the ball when they need to. They clear the floor when they need to. Hannah wants to do it and she puts the work in and her teammates trust in her. We let her do it. Teams are going to step up and try and stop her. we have other kids that can step in and help but she can do it and she’s just tough.”
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
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
