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No longer would patience be a part of his vocabulary. No longer would he pass up open looks. And no longer would he see Hilton Head High with the lead against his Wade Hampton team.
"I saw they were in the lead, and being a competitor, (I was) making sure it wasn't going to be like that in the end," Peeples said.
His long-distance shooting ensured it wasn't.
Peeples made five 3-pointers on his way to 21 points to lead the Red Devils past Hilton Head High, 53-38, on Tuesday night. The Seahawks held just one lead in the game -- 18-17 midway through the second quarter -- to which Peeples responded with back-to-back 3-pointers to give Wade Hampton the lead for good in the team's season opener.
"You've got to get in the flow of the game sometimes," Peeples said. "Eventually, I knew I was going to come around, so I just wanted to let the game come to me."
Once he found it, the Seahawks' search for an answer led them nowhere against the No. 1-ranked team in Class 2-A.
They trailed 10-0 to open the game. And after battling back to pull within one at halftime, Hilton Head High followed its 22-13 run with a six-point third quarter, an eight-minute stretch filled with missed layups and missed free throws. They finished just eight of 19 from the line.
Turnovers didn't help their cause -- the Red Devils used a high-energy full-court press to create easy buckets after the break.
"We stopped looking to the middle of the floor, and we let the pressure bother us," Seahawks coach Ken Updike said. "We definitely needed to take better care of the ball. There were glimpses I thought we did an excellent job of that, but we've got to have the moxie to stop the bleeding when we aren't."
Victor Frazier and Michael Julian paced the Seahawks (1-3) with eight points. Ten players scored for Hilton Head High, which will get a chance to bounce back on Saturday with a trip to Hardeeville, a team it split two meetings with a year ago.
"The effort was there. I'm very pleased with our effort," Updike said. "We have a few things to clean up on both ends of the floor and we need more time becoming familiar with one another."
WADE HAMPTON (1-0) -- Justin Peeples 21, Thomas Griffin 13, Corey Magwood 8, Steven Walker 7, Lorenzo Roberts 3, Terrell Williams 1.
HILTON HEAD HIGH (1-3) -- Victor Frazier 8, Michael Julian 8, Quintin Smalls 5, Leon Hudson 5, Will McCarty 3, Adam Viventi 2, Desmond Bush 2, TJ Clay 2, Clifford Morrow 2, Alex MacDonald 1.
HILTON HEAD HIGH GIRLS 52, WADE HAMPTON 23
The Seahawks are prepared to have their fair share of ugly quarters. That's to be expected of any team that lost 81 percent of its scoring from the previous season. Considering half of this year's roster includes freshmen, it shouldn't be a surprise one of those ugly quarters came in Tuesday night's season opener.
But perhaps even less surprising is who was there to bail them out of it -- Margo Dill. After a five-point first quarter, the Seahawks' top returning scorer from a year ago scored 12 points in the second quarter and finished with 21 to give Hilton Head High a win to start the year.
"I was excited we scored as many as five points. I though it'd be less," Seahawks coach Dave Greenberg joked. "... We just needed someone to start making some shots to get us relaxed. In that respect, it was crucial. Her making those shots really helped."
Dill's 12-point quarter paved the way for the rest of Hilton Head High's offense, which accounted for 47 points over the final three quarters. Sophomore Sabrina Drammis had 11 of those, while Jean Weisner added nine points.
WADE HAMPTON (0-1) -- Teria Washington 6, Kenyatta Hicks 4, Shards 4, Neketra Moore 3, Tasha Campbell 3, Kaiylaya Gordon 2, Lindsay Butts 1.
HILTON HEAD HIGH (1-0) -- Margo Dill 21, Sabrina Drammis 11, Jean Weisner 9, Shyteria Flemming 4, Sara Manesiotis 4, Elizabeth Wipper 2, Chanel Cohen 1.
