Alexa Romano is getting interest from Pac-12 teams, and she's getting prepared to take La Cueva deep into the playoffs.
Photo courtesy of Anthony A Griego Jr.
As the third quarter started in last Saturday's District 2-5A tournament championship game,
La Cueva (Albuquerque) girls basketball coach Robert Perea looked over to his star point guard,
Alexa Romano, and knew everything would be OK.
"She had that look in her eye that I've seen before, when she knows she has to take over," Perea said. "Alexa wanted to come out and will us to victory."
Did she ever. The 5-foot-10 junior scored 26 of her 32 points in the second half in leading the Bears to a 57-53 win against an Eldorado (Albuquerque) team that had won three of the teams' previous four meetings this season.
Just four days earlier, Eldorado beat La Cueva 66-64 on Caitlin Duree's 70-foot desperation shot at the buzzer. Seventh-seeded La Cueva (19-8) hosts No. 10 Albuquerque (16-10) at 6 p.m. Friday in the opening round of the 5A state tournament.
"Alexa wanted some redemption," Perea said. "She was amazing."
Alexa Romano, La Cueva
Photo courtesy of Anthony A Griego Jr.
Said Romano: "It felt good after the way they beat us. Once my shot started falling, I just wanted to keep on shooting."
That's exactly what Perea wanted to hear, because at times Romano hasn't been selfish enough.
"Alexa is a natural when it comes to sharing the ball," Perea said. "Her instinct is to pass first, but this season she's had more moments when she has that tunnel vision that says, ‘I'm going to take the shot.'"
Romano, who is averaging 22 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4 assists per game while shooting 44 percent from the floor and 46 percent from 3-point range, is attracting heavy interest from Division I programs, including several from the Pac-12 Conference.
"I've narrowed down where I want to go, and the schools I'm considering are ASU (Arizona State University), Colorado, Stanford, Oregon State and Washington," said Romano, who has a weighted 4.0 GPA while taking three advanced placement classes.
Romano, who is one of the top three players in New Mexico along with Clovis'
Danni Williams and Los Lunas'
Teige Zeller, possesses a game that is both breathtaking and fundamental in nature. Breathtaking because Romano can produce a highlight-reel play on a moment's notice; fundamental because Romano can stick a mid-range jumper — a lost art in today's game — several times in a game.
"The mid-range jumper really comes in handy because I can get really high on the shot so no one can block it," Romano said.
Romano credits her shooting coach, Elijah Shackleford, for her shooting prowess. Romano, who displayed strong shooting skills from the moment she started tagging along with her two older brothers to the basketball court when she was 6 or 7, was practicing during her seventh-grade year when Shackleford approached her to offer some advice.
"I call him coach Shack, and I don't know where I would be today without him," Romano said. "He's the one who really helped me develop all my shots."
Indeed, when Romano connects on a 3-pointer — she averages nearly three treys per game — it's usually from way beyond the arc.
"The defense usually crowds me at the 3-point line, so when I take them, I'm usually three or four feet behind the line," she said.
Said Perea: "When teams back off of Alexa, she can stick shots from the outside. If they come up on her, she has a pull-up jumper and the ability to get all the way to the basket. That's why it's extremely tough to defend her."
Romano's athleticism extends beyond the hardwood. In her freshman year, Romano won the 5A state title in the 400-meter run, finishing in a blistering 56.89 seconds. However, Romano actually hates running, which is one of the reasons why she didn't run track as a sophomore.
"Well, my dad said I have to run track this year because I don't want to look back and regret not doing it," Romano said. "I've been running for a long time and I'm pretty good at it, but when I won state as a freshman, it was more of a relief (than elation)."
Off the court, Romano spends a lot of her free time reading — not on her smart phone, but actual books. Unlike most of her peers, she loves the feeling of holding a book or magazine and turning pages, as opposed to clicking on a link from a magazine app hundreds of times just to read an entire issue.
"I hate reading on a Kindle because I like to feel the pages when I'm reading," she said.
Turning the page has never been an issue for Romano, who plans on leading her team to a state championship this season. Although the Bears are the No. 7 seed, they're probably one of only two or three teams capable of knocking off defending 5A state champion Clovis.
La Cueva reached the semifinals last year, where it lost to Clovis, 60-52, the Wildcats' closest game in the state playoffs.
"We're hoping to ride Alexa to the state championship," Perea said. "You need that one player who can take over a game at key moments, so we're excited to get things going."
The girls final is played at the University of New Mexico's basketball stadium, known simply as "The Pit." Romano envisions herself playing in the iconic basketball arena, anticipating an unforgettable moment.
"I'm sure my career-defining moment is yet to come," Romano said. "I'm hoping one of them comes soon."
