Sherman Oaks Notre Dame senior Mercy Miller already had 25 points at halftime of Monday night’s high school boys’ basketball game at North Hollywood Oakwood.
But it wasn’t until sometime in the third quarter that Knights coach Matt Sargeant realized his 6-foot-4 guard was on the verge of accomplishing something special.
“Everything was happening kind of in the flow of the game and then we had a really explosive third quarter,” Sargeant told The Times in a phone interview Tuesday. “He had 30 in the third quarter, so at that point it was like, ‘Oh, wait a second, he has a chance to do this. We should help support him.’”
Miller finished with 68 points, breaking the school record of 66 set by Bud Fabian in 1969. Junior point guard Angelino Mark also achieved an all-time best for the Knights, dishing out 20 assists during a 104-44 win that improved No. 8 Notre Dame to 7-0.
“They kind of did it sort of together,” Sargeant said . “[Angelino] was first to touch the ball, got his head up, found Mercy in transition and they were sort of like connected.”
Miller is the son of hip-hop mogul Master P, whose real name is Percy Miller and is known for the 1997 hit song “Make ’Em Say Uhh.”
Mercy Miller signed a letter of intent with Houston last month. He was one of the stars of the Notre Dame team that won the CIF Division I state title last season, averaging 17.1 points, 8.8 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game.
This season, Sargeant said, Miller has improved his numbers to 33 points, 12 rebounds and six assists a game. The coach refers to his team captain as “an extremely high-character kid, straight-A student and extremely hard worker” whose teammates were the ones pushing for Miller to have the game of a lifetime.
“We had 31 assists as a team,” Sargeant said. “This wasn’t like he’s at the top of the key shooting three-pointers. This was like everyone was kind of in on moving that ball to find him when he was open.”
He added: “It was a team achievement to help one player have a special moment.”
