Jon Masson | Wisconsin State Journal
The scoring and rebounding numbers were startling.
Even Alayna West had to acknowledge that.
The Madison La Follette junior’s production has skyrocketed this season after being the fourth scoring option on the senior-laden girls basketball team last season.
The 5-foot-9 West has scored more than 40 points three times, including a program-record 48 against Madison Memorial, and grabbed 20 or more rebounds three times, including a program-best 32 against Beloit Memorial, in her first eight games this season.
This after averaging 11 points and 9.8 rebounds as a sophomore.
The Lancers are off to a 6-2 start and West leads the state in scoring (33.1 points per game) and rebounding (19.0 boards per game).
West, who has offers from North Dakota and Eastern Illinois and has started to receive interest from higher NCAA Division I programs, also is in the top 10 in the state in steals (6.0 per game), according to WisSports.net’s leader boards.
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“She is so fast, so quick,” La Follette girls basketball coach Will Green said. “She doesn’t slow down. … Once it kicked in that she might do this every game, it was definitely astounding. And now I think she is very capable of doing that. And now we want her to do it.”
West believed she would do well this season, but said, “I didn’t think it would be as extreme as it is now with multiple 40 and 20 games. So that came as a shock.”
Green knew much of the team’s scoring production from last season was gone along with eight seniors, notably guards Demetria Prewitt, Aaliyah Smith and Malia Green, the coach’s daughter.
The quick-jumping West had been asked to play inside and crash the boards last season.
“Being a guard is my natural thing,” the 17-year-old West said. “I had to play the ‘5’ last year because that’s where the team needed me.”
New season, new role
Her role would have to change.
Most of the time, she’s playing point guard and carrying a big load for her team.
“I knew she could give us a lot of production, but I didn’t know it would be in the area of almost 40 points a game,” Green said. “And the rebound production. Wow.
“I had asked my team before the season started how we were going to get 45 points. The starting five said, ‘Oh coach, we can probably each score six or eight points.’ I said, ‘If all of you can get six or eight points, that will be great.’ Then the first night, she had 36 and the next night 48. She’s been consistently doing it for us and it’s been great. She’s just an outstanding athlete.”
West, who also competes in sprints and long jump during track and field season, has a knack for rebounding.
“I just think it’s how high I can jump,” she said. “I feel I’m off the floor grabbing the rebound before most other girls. It makes it easier.”
Competing with boys
West played on boys basketball teams and up in age with girls teams when she was younger. She also played youth football with the Southside Raiders, Green said.
“That was our big man,” Chris Davis Jr., a 6-3 sophomore guard for the Sun Prairie West boys basketball team, said when asked about Alayna West. “She was our fifth, always. She used to be taller than all of us.
“She had the most heart of us. Now she’s averaging 50 points a game. Growing up, she was playing with boys and she also was playing with females. I’m grateful for her. I knew this was going to happen. I texted her, ‘This is going to be your best season.'”
West, who said she has seven siblings (including four brothers), also learned the game playing family pickup games.
“That’s really what my childhood was — playing outside basketball against my brothers and their friends and my cousins,” she said. “My (older) brother Anthony is the one I’ve played one-on-one the most.”
Anthony West, a former La Follette boys basketball standout, also is someone who has believed this was possible.
“I think this is a shock to a lot of people,” Alayna West said. “The only person that I could say called it from the beginning was my brother Anthony. He’s been saying, ‘You are going to have a breakout season.’ He said, ‘You should average 30 points and 20 rebounds.’ He’s been saying that already.”
Madison La Follette’s Alayna West shoots Tuesday at Monona Grove.
Sun Prairie West boys basketball coach Chris Davis coached the team that his son, West and several other current Madison high schoolers played on as youth.
“She played with the boys forever,” he said. “You just knew when she transitioned back to the girls, it was going to be impossible to guard her.”
West, who’s leading Reedsburg’s Sydney Cherney in state scoring, had 27 points, 15 rebounds, five assists and five steals but nine turnovers in La Follette’s 79-46 loss to host Monona Grove on Tuesday.
West, who averages 5.1 assists per game, and Green are looking for her to be more efficient on the offensive end.
Sun Prairie West sophomore guard Chris Davis Jr. discusses being at a new school and the basketball season.
Jon Masson | Wisconsin State Journal
West, a second-team all-conference player last season, has been taking almost 30 shots a game and her shooting from the floor (about 41%) and free throw line (about 53%) need improvement.
She’s an active offensive rebounder. Her high rebounding totals sometimes are a product of rebounding her own missed shots in succession.
“So sometimes she’s getting like four rebounds in one possession,” Green said.
Receiving extra attention
Her early season success has led to teams double-teaming and triple-teaming her or playing a box-and-one, Green said.
That initially surprised West.
“It was something I wasn’t used to,” she said. “But now it doesn’t really matter what they do because I have to play how I have been playing.”
Green hopes juniors Serena Olson, Da’Jianna Hayes and Kelicia Caldwell and sophomore Rayne Mitchell can complement West, who said she wants to get more teammates involved.
“What we are working on now is for her to understand how to see other people and see the whole floor,” Green said. “She has to be able to see the floor and get people involved and not force shots.”
That becomes particularly important when La Follette meets top Big Eight Conference teams, including fifth-ranked Verona, eighth-ranked Sun Prairie West and Janesville Craig, which comfortably defeated La Follette in the opener.
Verona — led by juniors Taylor Stremlow (who’s narrowed her college choices to Iowa, the University of Wisconsin, Illinois and Penn State) and Reagan Briggs and seniors Paige Lambe (St. Cloud State commit) and Megan Murphy (UW-Stevens Point verbal commit) — currently lead the conference. West showed flashes of what she could do last season, scoring 29 points and grabbing 19 rebounds in a late-season victory over Verona.
West’s eye-popping start this season has been a cool thing for the Lancers.
“To have her at the top of the list of scoring and rebounding, that’s phenomenal for La Follette’s program,” Green said.
And for West, a good student who particularly enjoys math and history.
“She is finally getting her recognition,” Chris Davis said. “I think a lot of people didn’t know she was this good. I’ve been telling her mom since she was little that she’s a very special player.
“I think she’s going to go farther in life than a lot of girls that have come out of the Madison area because she has almost a 4.0, she’s a very good kid, very respectful, a very polite young lady. And she’s a heck of a player. I think she will go somewhere special, as a Division I player or anything in life, and she will be very successful.”
See where these Madison-area high school athletes will compete in college
DEFOREST
Jaelyn Derlein
School: UW-Parkside
Sport: Basketball
MADISON EDGEWOOD
Kathryn Albright
School: Marian University
Sport: Softball
Ryan Drumm
School: Butler
Sport: Baseball
Izzy Enz
School: University of Wisconsin
Sport: Swimming
Madison Foley
School: Washington University (St. Louis)
Sport: Soccer
Leo Koenig
School: St. Olaf
Sport: Baseball
Sam Klestinski
School: North Dakota
Sport: Football (Dec. 21).
Addie Schmotzer
School: University of St. Thomas (Minn.)
Sport: Volleyball
Brynn Stacey
School: University of Arizona
Sport: Swimming
Sam Vega
School: Southern Illinois University
Sport: Swimming
MADISON MEMORIAL
Andrea Jaskowiak
School: University of Iowa
Sport: Softball
Rowan Schreiber
School: New Jersey Institute of Technology
Sport: Volleyball
MIDDLETON
Natalie Charles
School: University of Idaho
Sport: Swimming
Nick Chirafisi
School: University of Utah
Sport: Swimming
Braeden Conwell
School: Carroll University
Sport: Lacrosse
Audrey Deptula
School: Loyola University Chicago
Sport: Basketball
Hayden Hellenbrand
School: Edgewood College
Sport: Baseball
Gavyn Hurley
School: Winona State University
Sport: Men’s basketball
Evin Jordee
School: Saint Peter’s University
Sport: Volleyball
Sydney Knutowski
School: University of Wisconsin-Platteville
Sport: Soccer
Jordan LaScala
School: University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee
Sport: Volleyball
Jack Madoch
School: University of Wisconsin
Sport: Swimming
Zaira Malloy-Salgado
School: University of Wisconsin
Sports: Cross country and track
Sierra Pertzborn
School: University of Toledo
Sport: Volleyball
Madilyn Vander Sanden
School: University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
Sport: Track and field
MONONA GROVE
Devin Coyle
School: St. Mary’s.
Sport: Baseball (December period)
Jackson Hewitt
School: St. Mary’s
Sport: Baseball (December period)
Miles Nelson
School: Clark Atlanta University
Sport: Baseball
Mac Vesperman
School: Edgewood College
Sport: Baseball (December period)
OREGON
Elise Boyd
School: Cleveland State
Sport: Soccer
Aubree Caya
School: University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
Sport: Soccer
Seth Niday
School: Lewis University (Illinois)
Sport: Lacrosse
Ashley Wolfe
School: Illinois State
Sport: Soccer
SUN PRAIRIE WEST
Lauren Adams
School: Iowa
Sport: Rowing
Avree Antony
School: Colorado State
Sport: Basketball
Tori Barnet
School: Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis
Sport: Swimming
Isabel Royle
School: St. Louis University
Sport: Softball
VERONA
Paige Lambe
School: St. Cloud State
Sport: Basketball
Abbi Rupnow
School: Mercer University
Sport: Lacrosse
Lauren Volk
School: Grand Valley State University
Sport: Lacrosse
WAUNAKEE
Payton Ross
School: Northern Michigan
Sport: Lacrosse
Kyla Saleh
School: University of Wisconsin
Sport: Track and field
Emily Whyte
School: Northern Michigan
Sport: Soccer
MORE TO COME
Check back for updates to the list as more area students announce their college commitments. And if you notice a local student athlete missing from the list, email the student’s information to [email protected]
MADISON WEST
Elizabeth Arnold
School: College of Charleston
Sport: Soccer
Caleb Karll
School: Ohio University
Sport: Baseball
Ben Minikel-Lacocque
School: Davidson
Sport: Soccer
STOUGHTON
Amelia Albers
School: Michigan Technological University
Sport: Volleyball
MADISON LaFOLLETTE
Arhman Lewis
School: Augustana University (South Dakota)
Sport: Basketball
MADISON EAST
Smith Connor
School: University of Minnesota
Sport: Men’s swimming and diving
LODI
Zane Licht
School: North Dakota State
Sport: Wrestling (November).
Lily Strong
School: Minnesota State-Mankato
Sport: Women’s track and field (Dec. 21)
Kaelyn Tatro
School: Viterbo University
Sport: Women’s soccer (Dec. 21)
Raegan Zastrow
School: Bryant & Stratton
Sport: Women’s volleyball (Dec. 21)
SUN PRAIRIE EAST
Logan Cunningham
School: UW-Whitewater
Sport: Swimming and Diving (Dec. 21)
Jerry Kaminski
School: North Dakota
Sport: Football (Dec. 21)
Kenzie Longley
Sport: Softball
School: UW-Oshkosh (Dec. 21)
Ruth Pavelski
School: Minnesota State-Moorhead
Sport: Swimming and diving (Dec. 21)
Taylor Schick
School: Lake Forest
Sport: Golf (Dec. 21)
Reagan Schwartzer
School: Bemidji State
Sport: Women’s tennis (Dec. 21)
Jonathan VandeWalle
School: Iowa State University
Sport: Football (Dec. 21).
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