Nearly four years ago, D’Angelo Stines’ Mount Saint Joseph team played in the Baltimore Catholic League semifinals against Deon Perry’s Mount Carmel squad.
The two battled back and forth with Perry scoring a game-high 27 points at Loyola’s Reitz Arena, while Stines tied for a team-high 14. While Perry had the advantage on the scoring end, Stines’ team won, 73-60, to advance to the BCL title game.
Stines and Perry, along with former John Carroll guard Tyson Commander, now play at Loyola. Sophomore Perry and junior Stines look back fondly on that game and have brought a similar energy to Reitz Arena on a nightly basis.
“They made a late push and got us on our heels and almost came back,” Stines said. “I remember my man [head coach Pat] Clatchey telling us in the timeout, ‘You’ve got one guy to stop,’ pretty much. ‘Stop [Perry] and we’re good.’ The whole starting five was in double figures and we got the dub. I don’t think I ever lost to him in high school — just to throw that out there.”
All three were standouts in the BCL. At 5-foot-8, 160 pounds, Perry was a dynamic playmaker at both ends of the floor, averaging 29 points, eight assists, six steals and five rebounds as a senior for Mount Carmel in 2021-22. He was named a Baltimore Sun first-team All-Metro selection that same year and was a two-time first-team All-BCL pick.
The 6-foot-2, 185-pound Stines was a second-team All-BCL performer and BCL All-Tournament Team selection in 2020. He was a first-team All-BCL pick the following year.
The 6-foot-4, 185-pound Commander scored 1,848 points for John Carroll from 2018-2022. He earned Baltimore Sun first-team All-Metro and first-team All-BCL selections as a senior in 2021-22.
“I feel like we can turn our team into something really great,” Commander said. “It makes it that much more special that we’ve got local guys. We get a different type of energy from everyone because they know us. They’re supporting people that they grew up with and they love. When you see the Patriot League, our home games are the ones with the most hype and energy in the gym.”
Perry and Commander have a great deal of familiarity with one another from the Nike EYBL circuit, developing their skills together with Team Melo until 2020. Commander went on to play for Team Durant in 2021. Stines competed against both in high school and played AAU ball for Team Thrill on the Under Armour circuit.
Playing for prestigious AAU teams that bear the names of local NBA players Carmelo Anthony (Towson Catholic), Kevin Durant and Will Barton (Lake Clifton), paired with playing in one of the most competitive high school leagues in the country, prepared the three for the Patriot League.
Perry is averaging 12.0 points, 4.0 assists, 2.1 rebounds and 1.7 steals entering Loyola’s game at George Mason on Dec. 16. He averaged 11.4 points, 2.1 rebounds and 2.0 assists as a freshman a year ago, shooting 41.8 percent from 3-point range.
“It doesn’t get me nervous playing against the top guys,” Perry said. “I really don’t care about the names or what this person has accomplished because at the end of the day, they still have to show me why they’re that person when we’re on the court together. I don’t take any player for granted — I play the same no matter who I’m going against. Some people may be better than others, but they have to show it on the court.”
Another thing that aligns the trio is their belief that college basketball teams in Baltimore — men’s or women’s — could be elite if they strictly plucked the top players from area high schools.
“If they got us all in the same place, I think we’d be at the top of the country for sure,” Stines said. “It’s different coming out of Baltimore. It’s dog-eat-dog. Nobody cares about the name — none of that. That’s true in all of us. We’ve been taught since [we were] kids. If schools were to lock in and get the top guys around here, we’d be the best for sure because we all go on to the next level and put on for ourselves and with the schools.”
Stines took a detour before coming to Loyola, spending his first two seasons of college ball at Old Dominion (2021-2023). He played 12.3 minutes per contest in 54 games for the Monarchs, then hit the transfer portal. He thought back to his initial recruitment prior to attending Old Dominion. Loyola was second on his list, mainly due to the doggedness that head coach Tavares Hardy showed in his recruitment.
Two minutes after hitting the transfer portal, Hardy sent a text to Stines, who decided to return home to play alongside the players he had built a tight bond with. He is averaging 9.9 points and 2.9 rebounds per contest 10 games into the season.
“With that relationship that we built when I was in high school, being back home and the familiarity — that played a role in it,” Stines said. “The opportunity that was presented, it was hard to turn down.”
Commander was known as a knockdown 3-point shooter at John Carroll. It was especially evident during the Patriots’ 2021 run to the BCL title, when he scored 20 points against Archbishop Spalding in the semifinals and 16 points against then-undefeated St. Frances in the final.
Now, Commander is in the beginning stages of building upon that as he seeks to become a three-level scorer with the ball in his hands. He is averaging 6.9 points and 3.1 rebounds per game.
“At Loyola, I’ve been able to make plays off of the dribble — whether that’s been getting to the rim or kicking to my teammates,” Commander said. “It’s just being more aggressive and not one-dimensional.”
Photo Credit: Ryan Eigenbrode/Loyola Athletics
Issue 284: December 2023 / January 2024
Originally published Dec. 13, 2023