Quentin Hillsman doesn’t think Kayla Alexander has hit the proverbial freshman wall. Despite her lack of tangible production as the season has progressed, Hillsman still boasts about having one of the best freshmen in the Big East.

But even by her own admission, Alexander knows she has been slumping lately.

‘I guess you could say I’ve hit that wall,’ she said. ‘I’m just trying to fight back and get over it.’

Alexander’s decline has gone hand in hand with that of the Syracuse women’s basketball team. After a surprising start to the season in which she was a major contributor to the Orange’s program-record opening 12 wins, Alexander’s season finally hit a low point in the team’s 74-71 loss to DePaul. She put up a goose egg in the points column and contributed only two rebounds while committing 3 fouls in 15 minutes.

Heading into the team’s final regular-season game against West Virginia Monday night (7 p.m., Carrier Dome), Alexander will have to rebound from her late struggles if the Orange (19-9, 6-9 Big East) expects to defeat the No. 8 Mountaineers (26-3, 13-2). And her teammates know it.

‘Kayla was really big in the beginning,’ fellow freshman Carmen Tyson-Thomas said last Tuesday before SU’s loss to No.1 Connecticut. ‘And she still is now. She needs to be.’

In many ways, Alexander symbolizes her team’s season. On one hand, she was the star freshman, coming off the bench, making an unexpected and valuable contribution to a winning team.

And on the other hand, there was the team that was off to a defining start as well. And Alexander was one of the biggest reasons for SU’s best start in program history (15-1).

‘I’m just trying to play hard,’ Alexander said before a 71-69 loss at Providence, one of the Orange’s six losses by four points or fewer this season. ‘I’m just putting in a lot of hard work.’

Heading into the team’s game against Georgetown, in what would ultimately be the Orange’s first loss on Jan. 2, Alexander was second on the team in points (12.9) and rebounds per game (6.1), as well as field-goal percentage (53.8 percent). She was playing 18.4 minutes per game and making those minutes count.

Alexander’s fast start gave freshmen like Tyson-Thomas and Elashier Hall, both of whom were playing lesser roles at the time, confidence. Seeing a first-year player come off the bench and have such a profound effect gave Hall the assurance that she could do the same.

‘It definitely (gave me confidence),’ Hall said. ‘Seeing what she did out there, you know it could be anybody on any given night.’

Then came the wall. Alexander scored in double figures in 14 of her first 18 contests at Syracuse. She’s reached the mark only once in the 10 games since.

Dominating performances like her 23-point showing against Wagner on Dec. 2 and grabbing nine offensive rebounds against New Hampshire on Dec. 30 have been almost non-existent.

Instead, they’ve been replaced with games where she’s finally looked like a freshman. Games such as her two-point performances against Notre Dame and Villanova. Like the two games in which she’s had more personal fouls than points.

Senior forward Juanita Ward thinks Alexander’s recent struggles may just be her first-year inexperience finally catching up to her.

‘She knows that the girls are a little bit stronger than she is,’ Ward said, ‘because coming from high school to playing against girls that have been in college for two or three years, it’s a big difference.’

Alexander also admitted that the adjustment to Big East play has been tough. While she feasted on opponents in SU’s non-conference schedule, her fall has coincided with the meat of the conference schedule.

‘I would say it’s pretty intense,’ Alexander said of Big East play. ‘It’s very competitive and it’s aggressive. You have to work hard every game.’

Coming off the worst performance of her freshman season, Alexander realizes the importance of her play in correlation with her team’s success. And she knows games like those just won’t cut it in Big East play.

And with just one game remaining in the regular season, time is running out for Alexander to break through that wall.

‘Just not so much thinking about it and just going out there and playing,’ Alexander said of her adjustments to her recent struggles. ‘To be completely honest, I hit a wall. And that’s a negative.’

bplogiur@syr.edu

Published on February 28, 2010 at 12:00 pm