Loyola freshman point guard Deon Perry has scored in double figures in five of the Greyhounds’ last six games entering play on Jan. 30, and that’s good news for a Greyhounds team looking to find a rhythm following a lackluster start to Patriot League play.
Most recently, Perry scored 20 points on 6-of-13 shooting in Loyola’s 80-66 win against Bucknell on Jan. 28, which pushed the Greyhounds to 8-15 overall and 3-7 in the Patriot League. The 5-foot-8, 160-pound point guard is averaging 26.3 minutes, 8.6 points and 2.0 assists per contest on the season, and he has scored a total of 80 points in Loyola’s last six games.
Perry is finding a groove as his freshman season rolls along.
“Coming in, I knew that I was going to play a major role in the offense. Right now, I’m just comfortable,” Perry said after the Bucknell game. “I’m playing my role, knowing what I have to do in order for us to get the win. Mainly, all I’m really worried about is winning the games. The points [are] just going to come as they come.”
Perry hit four 3-pointers against the Bison, not surprising considering he is shooting 39.2 percent from deep on the season. He had two nifty ones in which he shook a defender with a behind-the-back dribble and then drilled a long-range shot, including this one:
The second of those 3-pointers was especially crucial, since it gave Loyola a 53-49 lead and sparked a 17-6 run that essentially won the game for the Greyhounds. Perry says those clever 3-pointers aren’t an accident.
“That’s just something I work on,” Perry said. “I work on my game daily, so I feel comfortable shooting certain shots, and I just know they’re going to go in.”
Perry is the youngest piece of a veteran starting lineup for the Greyhounds, who also start graduate students Jaylin Andrews and Kenneth Jones, senior Golden Dike and junior Alonso Faure. But Perry was ready for a big role right out of high school considering that he averaged 29 points, eight assists, six steals and five rebounds per game as a senior at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Essex.
The confidence carried over to Loyola. Perry has taken the second-most shots on team (190), even if he does happen to be learning on the fly, as evidenced by his .342 shooting percentage.
“He’s a good player, and we need him to be confident, and so sometimes I’ve got to live with some of the crazy that it takes to get to the confidence,” Greyhounds head coach Tavaras Hardy said. “But sometimes I’ve got to coach him, and I want him to stay confident through the coaching as well. It’s a battle with a freshman, but he’s figuring it out. I’m figuring it out with him. I think it’s going to pay off for us down the stretch.”
Hardy found a teachable moment for Perry late in regulation against Bucknell with a 69-58 lead. Loyola was mostly battling the clock when Jones lobbed a pass up ahead to Perry, who was streaking down the court for what he hoped would be a transition bucket. But he was tracked down by 6-foot-9 forward Ruot Bijiek, who swatted his shot away with 2:18 to play.
Hardy knows the smarter play would have been to pull the ball back out and drain the clock, but he couldn’t help but be amused by the run-after-the-catch skills of Perry, who played some football at Mount Carmel in addition to hoops.
“It’s funny because the senior Kenny Jones put him in that position by throwing that pass,” Hardy said. “Kudos to Deon, and he was a high school wide receiver here in Baltimore. I always make fun of him … because the one game I went to, he didn’t score a touchdown. It got called back. But he went and grabbed that. Now, grab it and dribble it out. Don’t shoot a spinning lefty over a 6-9 guy when you have a [late 11-point lead]. Those things, you learn and grow. Just glad it didn’t hurt us.”
GREYHOUNDS NOTEBOOK
ANDREWS HAS BIG GAME: Fifth-year man Jaylin Andrews hadn’t put together a 20-plus-point performance since Nov. 10 until he scored 24 points on 7-of-8 shooting against Bucknell. (He also went 9-of-12 from the free-throw line.) The 6-foot-4, 186-pound wing had struggled of late, scoring a total of 22 points in the four games prior to breaking out against the Bison.
Any hope the Greyhounds have of enjoying a better month of Patriot League play involves Andrews playing to his capabilities. The Boys’ Latin graduate averaged 13.7 points per game as a senior last year. Head coach Tavaras Hardy is confident Andrews is turning the corner.
“Jaylin’s been right there in terms of getting the shots that we want him to get,” Hardy said. “Today you could just see it in his eyes. Actually, you could see it the last few days of practice that he had senior moment that, ‘I’m better than this. I’m going to lock in.’ And he did it with eight shots. He had 24 points with eight shots.”
NATIONAL TV TEST LOOMS: Loyola has eight regular-season Patriot League games remaining, starting with a matchup at Colgate (16-7 overall, 10-0 in the conference) on Jan. 30 that can be seen on CBS Sports Network. The Greyhounds lost to the Raiders, 101-67, on Dec. 30, with Colgate shooting 67.2 percent from the field and 60.9 percent from 3-point range during that contest.
Loyola will look to put forth a better effort this time around.
“We have the pieces that can give them a hard time,” Hardy said. “And then if you’re there down the stretch and you’ve got a chance to win a game, who’s going to execute? That’s going to be our mentality going forward throughout the season but definitely going into Monday.”
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Loyola Athletics