By Mike London

mike.london@salisburypost.com

GREENSBORO — Guilford College forward Carleigh Perry stands 5-foot-10, but only about one inch of that is ego, so she laughs cheerfully when she’s informed that she is now officially known as CP Perry’s cousin.

“I play with CP when the whole family gets together every Christmas Eve,” Carleigh said. “So I knew this was coming for a while. I love watching him play. I’m sure he’s going to outshine all of us.”

“All of us” includes Carleigh’s brother, Cole Perry, a former Carson star who, after spending time with several programs, finally got an opportunity to play at Randolph College in Lynchburg, Va. Now a 6-foot-5 grad student, he’s started every game for Division III Randolph, which plays in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, the same league Carleigh competes in.

Cole has a similar game to his little sister’s. He only averages 5.3 points, but he leads Randolph in assists and rebounds.

Carleigh’s first cousin, Colbie Perry, CP’s sister and the daughter of Carson boys basketball coach Brian Perry, plays for Converse University in Spartanburg, S.C. She’s had some injury setbacks, but she’s still hanging in there. She came off the bench to make a 3-pointer in Saturday’s loss to Chowan.

CP Perry is averaging 18 points as a Carson freshman and has the talent to be the successor to Salisbury’s Juke Harris as the next big thing in Rowan County basketball.

Still, if CP is going to out-shine Carleigh, he’s got some work to do.

Carleigh and Colbie, a 1,000-point scorer for the Cougars, were born two months apart. They were seniors on Carson’s 19-0 3A state champs coached by Brooke Stouder in the 2021 COVID season that didn’t get started until January.

Carson fans will never forget that when the Cougars played their third-round game at Enka, with Mary Spry, who now plays for Catawba, sidelined by a ankle injury, Carleigh wouldn’t let them lose. She had 19 rebounds that night.

Carleigh is also one of those rare folks who scored her high school career high in a state championship game.

Carson didn’t need her to score very often during that sensational 2021 season, as most of the Cougars’ games were blowouts, but she averaged 12.7 points and 10.6 rebounds in the postseason. She scored 19 of Carson’s 51 points in the 3A championship game while battling Asheboro’s 6-foot-2 Diamond McDowell, who is now a star at Anderson in the D-II South Atlantic Conference.

Carleigh was voted MVP of that state title game played at Providence Grove High and also was the sportsmanship award winner.

“That game was the perfect ending to a perfect season.” Carleigh said. “It was such a journey to get to that senior season, but I got to play with family and with best friends, and we won every game we played.”

After a promising career at Erwin Middle School, Carleigh suffered a torn ACL prior to her freshman basketball season at Carson, then had to go through the trauma of a second ACL tear after she had started her sophomore season in spectacular fashion. She came back strong as a junior, stayed healthy, and then put together a memorable senior season. She was Rowan County Co-Player of the Year, sharing the honor with Salisbury’s Kyla Bryant. Bryant, now a North Carolina Central standout, was a sophomore then.

Perry, who also starred in tennis for the Cougars, wasn’t highly recruited despite her series of clutch performances during Carson’s playoff run and an impressive all-round skill set. Maybe schools were worried about her knees. Maybe there was a perception that she wasn’t big enough to play in the post nor quick enough to play on the wing.

But Perry’s tenacity and hustle have always overcome any limitations, and they continue to do so. She is still at her best in the toughest games.

“I’m never going to score a ton,” she said. “But I feel like I can do some different things and I try to do whatever my team needs on a particular night. We struggled some my freshman year, but we had a good turnaround last season. We lost a big scorer, but now we’re having another good season.”

Perry started 11 games as a freshman and started every game as a sophomore on a team that won 20 games. She had two double-doubles.

She’s now in her junior season at Guilford, still not scoring big, but usually filling the stat sheet with positive numbers.

Guilford (11-4) won 80-65 on Saturday at home against Randolph College in Ragan-Brown Field House, the gym that looks like a church. Perry was even better than usual — 10 points, nine rebounds, six steals, five assists and two blocks.

But the performance that really made her beam was the one turned in by teammate Courtney McMillan, who is Perry’s roommate.

McMillan, a former North Davidson star who had some battles in the Central Carolina Conference with Salisbury, Ledford, East Davidson and South Rowan, poured in 30 points on Saturday.

“She is crazy athletic,” Perry said.

The question Perry is asked most frequently is ‘How are the knees?”

“They swell a little, but they’re holding up good,” she said. “A lot of ice treatments.”

Perry is averaging 6.7 points and 6.3 rebounds this season and is second on the team in assists.

When Guilford played Pfeiffer on Dec. 15, it was virtually a Carson reunion in Greensboro. Hannah Isley, who also played on Carson’s state champs, is a starter for Pfeiffer, so a lot of members of the Carson Cougar family made the trip. Perry was thrilled to see them and tried her best to fist-bump all of them.

Academically, things are going quite well for Perry who made the conference’s All-Academic team as a sophomore.

“My major is exercise science,” she said. “I really can’t complain about anything. There were some tough times with the injuries in high school, but it’s all worked out for the best. Guilford is a really good school and I’m still getting to play competitive basketball.”

Perry has had way too much personal experience as far as surgeries and rehabs, but her inspiring life story just keeps getting better.