Measurements of inclusive ( p,␣) reactions on 27 Al, 59 Co, and 197 Au at incident energies between 120 and 200 MeV are compared with the trend expected from systematics and also with calculations based on a statistical multistep direct reaction theory. Although reasonable agreement is obtained between the experimental angular distributions and the predictions of the parametrized systematics at various emission energies, significant discrepancies are nevertheless observed. Calculations with the quantum-mechanical multistep formulation confirm that the higher-step contributions are more important at these incident energies than found in a previous study at lower projectile energies. ͓S0556-2813͑96͒03007-5͔