'Who would have thought I'd be playing Division I college basketball with them some day?'
McLimore, Wise and Taylor Ramey played together in fourth grade for the Indiana Elite travel team. In high school, McLimore, Perkins and Wise played together for the Indy Magic AAU team. “Knowing each other since we were young, the friendship that we've had growing up, the chemistry that we have this year, it just means more,” Wise said.
“Everybody's always known about her offensive abilities, which she continues to display,” he said. “But she has held virtually every player that she's guarded this year under their average. In high school, that wasn't really her forte. Game in and game out, she takes a challenge guarding the other team's best player while still putting up big offensive numbers for us.”
“It's the people who you're around. They all care about you,” she said. “They all know what you have been through. I'm a better person because I've been here.” Perkins’ stats don’t jump off the page — 6.4 points and 3.2 assists in 18 games — but her presence makes a difference. She’s missed nine games due to injury this season, and it was noticeable.
“I really wanted to come back home and play, with everything going on with my family,” she said. “I just knew that I wanted to play in Indiana and I wanted to be close to home. was like, ‘You could come to IUPUI.’”