SABINE PASS — Daniel Sam scored 34 points against Bob Hope — with only one practice under Sabine Pass’ belt — and 48 against Baytown Christian, both games at home.

What has gotten into him?

“It’s nothing but the grace of God,” Sam said. “I just go out there and work as hard as I can, on and off the court. Playing AAU over the summer, when we’re playing a lot of games, that helped me develop my skills as a player.

If Sam’s 41-point per game average isn’t amazing enough, the 6-foot-3 senior guard can play all five positions. He is the tallest player on the team, after all.

“Especially when you know every team we play is targeting Daniel and you know what he’s capable of, it doesn’t take much time at all to see the numbers he’s been putting up, so he’s the center of their defensive scheme,” second-year Sabine Pass coach Scott Hagedorn said. “He’s still just working harder than ever and getting his wherever he can.”

With just one practice before the season opener, Sam had to rely on his usual morning shoot-around to find his rhythm. He managed to produce although he was getting tired while facing Bob Hope’s box-and-1 defense.

“I’ve been doing that for the past two months,” he said. “I feel like that helps me score and helps me choose my spots, and I’ll get to my spots and knock them down.”

Against Baytown Christian, Sam could hardly miss.

He made 20 of 28 field goals, a 71 percent clip, in the 71-32 win. Four of his seven three-point tries went in. He also made three steals.

“He was going hard off screens,” Hagedorn said. “His teammates were working hard for him and trying to make sure his defense was there. There was a hard fault to find in his game. I think the only thing we could critique was his free-throw percentage, and that was an abnormal game.”

Sam made only 4 of 8 at the line.

“I just go out there and lead my team to the best of my abilities,” Sam said. “If that’s scoring points, I try to do that. If that’s defense, I try to do that. We just try to get out and get the job done.”

This is not the third-year varsity player’s first time as a reliable scorer. He averaged 22 points, five rebounds and four steals per game and shot 58 percent from the field last season alongside Jamyus Jones, who led the Sharks with 24 points per game and averaged similar clips.

An 8-18 season for the Sharks still got them into the 2A bi-district round, but they lost to Lufkin Pineywoods 100-93 despite Jones’ 55 points and Sam’s 28.

“It gives us a lot of motivation,” Sam said of the defeat. “We had tried to put that chip on our shoulder and try to put it in the past and try to get better next season as a team and as individuals.”

Sabine Pass reached the area round in 2016. Jones is now at Port Arthur Memorial, where he had 33 points in a home victory over Houston Scarborough on Saturday.

Sabine Pass needed to find some help for Sam with the departures of Caleb Malbrue, who moved to Austin during Tropical Storm Harvey, and Jones. Hagedorn said he’s found that in senior Zion Parker and sophomore Harold James.

The Sharks are 1-1 and will face Warren on the road Tuesday. Whatever it takes not to lose, Sam is fine with it.

“My goal is to get better each and every game and each and every practice,” he said. “We didn’t try to lose no more, so I tried to lead us in points, and I had to do that.”

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I.C. Murrell: 549-8541. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews