HAMPTON, Va. – When she was 10 years old,
Quanneisha Perry took up the game of basketball, playing in the neighborhoods of her hometown of Decatur, Ga. She often played against the boys in her neighborhood – much to their chagrin.
“Oh, I beat them real bad,” she said. “They'd get pretty upset, wouldn't want me to play anymore.”
Opponents in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) are probably feeling the same way these days. Perry, a junior, has 10 double-doubles this season heading into Saturday's game at Bethune-Cookman at 4 p.m. in the Moore Gymnasium. She leads the Lady Pirates (14-10, 9-3 MEAC) with 12.7 points per game, while also pulling down a team-high 9.1 rebounds per contest.
With eight double-doubles in her last 13 games,
Perry has led Hampton in its mid-season resurgence. The Lady Pirates have won eight straight games – including Monday's 90-80 win over North Carolina A&T –and 11 of their last 13.
The Lady Pirates are in second in the MEAC, two games behind North Carolina A&T.
Even though she had a solid 2008-09 season – averaging 7.6 points a game and sitting second on the team with 7.8 rebounds a contest – Perry was unsatisfied. Despite being named to the MEAC All-Tournament Team, Perry was too focused on Hampton's loss in the title game to North Carolina A&T.
“It made us more humble,” she said. “Losing that game was … it wasn't a good sight. I felt personally responsible, because I didn't play as well as I could've, and I thought if I could turn it around, not make some of the same mistakes ag
ain, maybe I can make up for that.”
Still, Perry questioned herself in the offseason. When Hampton decided not to renew Walter Mebane's contract and named
David Six as the interim head coach, Perry found herself having a crisis of confidence – partially because she didn't understand why Six was being so hard on her.
“I didn't get it at the time,” she said. “I'd had a pretty good year (in 2008-09), and here he was getting on my case all the time. I was going through my own personal slump because of that, but now I know what Coach was doing.
“He was trying to make me see I can be better.”
Message received.
Under Six's leadership, Perry has been more aggressive on the court, tapping into a repertoire of moves she had, but had never used. The proof is in her numbers, as well as the team's winning streak, as the Lady Pirates stare a possible No. 2 seed in the MEAC Tournament in the face with four games left in the regular season.
“At the beginning of the year,” Perry said, “we knew each other, but we didn't really know each other. Coach was learning us, and we were learning him. Now that we know what to expect from each other.”
Perry, a recreation major who wants to get into coaching after school, had a chance to stay home. While Hampton and Temple were recruiting her out of Towers High School, she was also receiving interest from Georgia State and Georgia Tech. The chance to stay close to home was tempting, but Perry feels she made the right choice in leaving.
“Staying home might not have been the best thing for me,” she said. “It'd be too easy to get into trouble … too much of the party life. Leaving home allowed me to focus better.”
Outside of basketball, Perry prefers to relax and get as much sleep as possible – the only habit she admits to having is shopping – and in getting ready for games, she turns to music. A fan of local talent from her hometown, as well as such artists as Gucci Mane, Lil Wayne and Nikki Minaj, Perry has two favorites for pre-game tunes: Lil Wayne's “Oh, Let's Do It” and Chamillionaire's “Turn It Up.”
Which is appropriate, since that's what the Lady Pirates have done in conference play – and Perry sees no reason for that not to continue.
“It's hard to stay humble,” she admitted. “But that's what got us to this point, and it's up to us to go out there every night and send a message to the rest of the MEAC.”
