2020 Pirate Player Preview: Alexia Allesch

Date: July 21, 2020

By: Daniel LeMoine

Daniel LeMoine/WSOU Sports

After the 2018-19 season, the Seton Hall women’s basketball team’s future was unclear as the team was graduating key players such as Kaity Healy, Inja Butina and Nicole Jimenez amongst others. Along those who graduated, there were also significant members of the team that transferred from the program.

Yet, Head Coach Anthony Bozzella and his staff did a fantastic job of revamping the squad with raw freshman talent and especially the use of the NCAA transfer portal. The Pirates brought in four transfers for the 2019-20 season, two of which sat out the 2018-19 season due to NCAA transfer rules.

The four transfers that decided to make South Orange their new home were Barbara Johnson, Alexis Lewis, Jocelyn Jones, and Alexia Allesch. The team also added JUCO transfer Jasmine Smith. Lewis and Allesch were members of the squad during the 2018-19 season and did not waste any time adjusting to Bozzella’s tactics and game plan.

We all know who Lewis is, after seeing her absolutely tear up opposing defenses as a senior at the Hall. She ranked second on the team with 13.3 points-per-game while also averaging 6.0 rebounds-per-game. She additionally knocked down 73 three pointers in the 2019-20 season.

As for Allesch, the 2019-20 season was a big learning experience for the sophomore who appeared in 22 games and actually made three starts due to her hard work on the court. Allesch checks in at 6-foot-1-inch and plays the forward position. Especially in the second half of the season and into the shortened postseason, Allesch proved to be reliable for the Pirates and give them good minutes while resting some of their starters.

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“Alexia really came through for us big time this year. She kept herself ready, in shape and when her number was called, she was fantastic. We don’t win 19 games without Alexia’s contributions to the program. I expect a lot more out of her even as we go along.”

Those were Coach Bozzella’s remarks on Allesch’s 2019-20 season and why there is even more room for improvement as she enters her upperclassman years. It is hard to imagine that the woman being talked about in that quote only averaged 2.5 points and 2.0 rebounds in 9.8 minutes-per-game. But yes, she was that important to this team’s success and her numbers do not even begin to show how talented and hard-working Alexia is when she steps on the court.

Allesch started off her collegiate career at the University of Massachusetts where she appeared in 29 contests. She averaged 1.9 points and 1.8 rebounds-per-game in 7.8 minutes-per-contest. She attended UMass out of Gill St. Bernard’s High School in Gladstone, New Jersey, not too far from the campus of Seton Hall.

In high school, she was a terrific player for head coach Aaron Gratch of Gill St. Bernard’s. She posted 681 points, 535 rebounds, 184 blocks, 113 steals and 56 assists. She was a three-time All-Area selection and also earned academic honors in each year of high school.

Thom Kendall/UMass Athletics

Once at the University of Massachusetts, Allesch came onto the scene looking to be a big-time player. With limited minutes in her freshman season and a rather rough year for the team, she decided it was time to make the move back to New Jersey and join the Pirates. While at University of Massachusetts, Head Coach Tory Verdi said this of Allesch:

“Alexia is a versatile post player who can score with her back to the basket, can face up and shoot the three and is really good in transition.”

He is certainly right as Pirates’ fans got a glimpse of her abilities this past season. Allesch’s three starts for the Pirates came in consecutive games against Marquette, DePaul and Providence, three quality opponents. In those matches, she collected 16 points and 8 rebounds. But her impact was not only as a starter. Some of her best games were off the bench such as the game against Providence on Jan. 20. She posted 7 points and 4 rebounds on 2-2 shooting from the field in 20 minutes. After that game, Coach Bozzella had some high praise for her.

“The kid that I’m really, really, really excited about is Alexia…Now she’s back, she’s earned herself a spot in the rotation. She is going to play every game and be a significant factor to us. I’m really proud of her.”

Bozzella also added that Allesch is a “good basketball player” and that she had just recently become confident in herself and her game around the time of this matchup. This breakout game against Providence might have been just what she needed. After that, she had continuous notable performances for the Pirates. She recorded 6 points vs. DePaul on Feb. 9 and then erupted for career-highs of 10 points and 6 rebounds in 23 minutes of play at Providence on Feb. 14. She continued that momentum and wound up tallying 5 points against No. 18 DePaul in the semifinals of the Big East Championship.

Gabe Rhodes/GR Productions

In her total of 215 minutes for the Pirates this past season, she averaged impressive shooting numbers, shooting 47.7 percent from the field and 38.1 percent from behind the arc. She also posted nine blocks and five steals on the defensive end which is so vital to Coach Bozzella’s up-tempo and transition-based game plan. Now, we have discussed what Allesch has done in the past. But what can we look forward to and what does she need to improve on?

Allesch has an abundance of strengths that’ll prove to be vital to a Pirates team that is losing the trio of Lewis, Johnson, and Shadeen Samuels. She is extremely versatile on the offensive side of the ball and has proven to be able to score from anywhere. We saw some great post work from a player who knows how to use her 6-foot-1-inch stature to her advantage and finish through contact.

We also saw her ability to shoot from downtown, mostly on the catch-and-shoot game, with the plays being facilitated by the likes of Lauren Park-Lane and Mya Jackson. Then we saw everything in between, whether it was put back layups, close range shots and even mid-range jumpers.

Get your dose of @SHUWBB today with the plays of the game from their win against Creighton

Alexia Allesch showed her versatility in back to back plays getting the and-1 basket and a buzzer beater three! @HeavenHill27 on the call.

Listen to full game by going to our bio pic.twitter.com/fbP0NEjWH6

— WSOU Sports (@WSOUSports) June 20, 2020

On the defensive side of the ball, we saw glimpses of hope for the future when she will be posting more consistent minutes. On a few occasions, we saw Allesch use her height and length to block opponents’ shots when in the paint and also, we saw her hard work and aggressiveness to force turnovers in the form of steals. Allesch is a high-IQ player on the court who sees the game transpire right in front of her eyes and she positions herself accordingly.

One thing that could never be questioned from her game is her work ethic. I remember in the 2018-19 season, before the team would come out for warmups and shootaround, Allesch would be grinding inside Walsh Gymnasium with Assistant Coach Jose Rebimbas. She would be working on her finishing, her jump shot, her quickness on defense, and so many more aspects of her game. It has clearly paid off and the coaches are noticing her work and her impact on the court.

Her willingness to sacrifice for her love of the game and love of her teammates is also tremendous. In relation, Allesch was named the women’s basketball “Teammate of the Year” at this year’s virtual SHUcademy Awards by Seton Hall Athletics. She deserves this recognition and it is clear that when she is on the bench, she is supporting her teammates and when she is on the court, she always has their backs no matter what. With the loss of the seniors and having a rather young squad this year, players will look up to Allesch for leadership and just constant communication on and off the court and she will step up.

One area of improvement for Allesch is maintaining her confidence and staying at that level that Bozzella mentioned after that Providence matchup. She is talented and has the natural ability to be an impactful player and she was against high-quality Big East opponents. She must use this going forward and know she is more than capable of putting up big numbers on the court and being a key contributor to this program.

Another area of improvement would be on the defensive end because we know how much this team loves their defense. The Pirates have guards Park-Lane and Jackson as well as others causing chaos at the top of the arc to create turnovers leading to baskets on the other end.

Now is where blocks and interior defense must also prove to be a backbone of this team and with Allesch being one of the tallest women on the court, she will have to use this and be tough inside the paint. If they are able to create fear in the opponents and stop them from coming inside the paint, the Pirates will benefit greatly and improve their already stout defense.

Seton Hall Athetics

The main thing Pirates fans should take from this article is that Allesch is a talented basketball player, but we need a larger sample size of her abilities. It certainly sounds like Coach Bozzella and his staff plan on getting her more minutes and will rely on her much more this season due to her second half performance in 2019-20. We saw her impact on a smaller scale and it proved to be promising but that efficiency and effectiveness must last when she begins posting more and more minutes.

Fans should be excited to continue to watch Allesch grow on the court and become an even larger contributor to the Pirates. Coach Bozzella has said that he’s never been more impressed with a player’s readiness to play and that is exactly what him and this team will need in the 2020-21 season.

Daniel LeMoine is an Assistant Sports Director for WSOU Sports, and can be reached at daniel.lemoine@student.shu.edu.

Posted in: Sports, Women's Basketball, WSOU