At the Peak of His Tolerance, Hart’s Peek Fights Back

A guy can take only so much. Even someone who is soft-spoken and keeps his elbows to himself. Even Ali Peek.

Peek has taken it all--hacks, chops, kicks--as the centerpiece of the Hart High basketball offense.

“One shot I remember was getting elbowed in the eye,” said Peek, a 6-foot-5, 250-pound senior forward. “I don’t remember who it was against, but I know that it hurt.”

And there have been other similar instances. Against virtually every opponent, Peek has been the target of a desperate deployment of defenders, double- and triple-teamed in an all-out attempt to deny him access to the basket.

“Every night he knows he’s going to have the whole world hanging on him,” Hart Coach Greg Herrick said. “And every night he gets slapped and hammered and kneed.”

Said Peek: “It’s all part of the game. I just go with it.”

Pay-back time for Peek arrived Friday night against Schurr in a key Foothill League game in a packed Hart gym.

Although gang-guarded as usual, Peek delivered the more punishing blows with short turnaround jump shots, overpowering inside moves and authoritative rebounding at both ends.

Peek scored a career-high 40 points and pulled down a school-record 23 rebounds in Hart’s 79-66 victory.

From the opening tip, Peek was knee-deep in defenders. Schurr’s triple-team limited Peek to six points in the first quarter as the Spartans moved ahead, 24-12.

But an altercation beneath the Schurr basket early in the second quarter changed the game’s complexion and drew an uncharacteristic reaction from Peek, who could stand to make a stand, according to Herrick.

Peek drew an elbowing foul, then extended a word and a pointing finger toward the guilty defender. From the stands, Peek said, he heard a Schurr fan call him a crybaby.

He responded with the first of eight free throws in the second quarter and 12 overall. Peek scored 14 points in the second quarter and Hart pulled even, 37-37, at halftime. He added nine points in the third quarter and 11 in the fourth.

“I’ve taken a lot of shots this season. It doesn’t make me frustrated, but it sort of makes me angry,” said Peek, who has drawn interest from Pacific 10 Conference members USC, UCLA, Oregon and Oregon State. “But at the same time, I use that anger in my game. It’s sort of a motivation, a challenge.”

Three Schurr starters fouled out and Peek repeatedly was sent to the free-throw line. He made 12 of 20 free throws and 14 of 20 field-goal attempts. Peek’s point total was two shy of Micah Ohlman’s school-record of 42 in 1990.

Before Tuesday’s game, Peek was shooting only 59% (104 of 177) from the free-throw line but an impressive 66% (222 of 335) from the field. He was averaging 23.8 points and 15.1 rebounds.

“I tell college coaches all the time that he’s scoring 24 points a game and he’s being triple-teamed,” Herrick said. “He’s had great games for us in the past--27, 34 points with 18 rebounds. But this was the kind of game I’ve been waiting for from him. I think he could average that all the time.”

Not without obstacles. Even Peek realizes that the bumps and bruises will only get bigger.

“The game’s not going to get any cleaner as it goes along,” Peek said. “That’s just the nature of the competition.”