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Engagement didn't deter Alex Andrews from her basketball dreams

Alex Andrews' engagement last fall didn't prevent her from making significant contributions to the basketball team's national championship.

2009-04-03
By Pat Ruff, Post-Bulletin Staff Writer [published in the Post-Bulletin, Rochester, MN, 3/31/2009]

In September, Alex Andrews became engaged to be married.

The very next morning the Minnesota State, Mankato senior made a bee-line to the office of her head women's basketball coach, Pam Gohl. The Triton High School graduate couldn't wait. She had to make one thing abundantly clear.

"I didn't want her to think, because of the engagement, that I wouldn't be focused for the season," Andrews said. "I am very excited for the wedding. But I wasn't ready to let this season go. I was going to go out strong, and I told her that."

When it comes to effort, Gohl couldn't possibly find someone to worry less about than Andrews.

"It was cute that she felt like she had to tell me that," Gohl said.

While that quick heart-to-heart was charming, Gohl was even more taken by what she saw from Andrews the next seven months. Always a fierce competitor, Andrews actually took things up another notch in her engagement year.

Actually, it wasn't the engagement that did it. What it really came down to was that this was Andrews' and five fellow senior teammates' last hurrah.

It also didn't hurt that they entered it with great expectations. The Mavericks, coming off a 23-9 campaign in which they'd reached the NCAA Division II Sweet 16, were counting on even more this season. They were set to do it with a speedy four-guard lineup that played at a racy tempo, and was paced by a former high school track star at center, Andrews.

"We wanted nothing more than to continue (further) into that tournament," Andrews said. "(The seniors) definitely wanted it more than ever, because it was starting to set in that we were almost done."

They got their wish, all right. Sweet 16 gave way to Elite Eight, then Final Four, and finally the sweetest achievement possible. On Friday night in San Antonio, the Mavericks ended a glorious season with an even more glorious final game, beating Franklin Pierce 103-94 in the national championship.

And guess who turned in the most glorious performance of all for a team that finished 32-2? It was Andrews, the Mavericks' undersized but ultra-athletic 5-foot-11 center.

The young woman who had promised Gohl that she was going to go out strong, certainly kept her word. Not only did Andrews have her most impactful season ever, averaging 12 points, seven rebounds, two steals and one block per game, but she literally saved her best for last.

The championship turned into a career game for Andrews as she totaled 25 points and 11 rebounds. The former was a career high, and she did it while hitting a blistering 11 of 13 shots, and all three of her free throws.

It was in the second half that Andrews especially turned things on, after Mankato had trailed by eight.

"There was so much action that it was hard to say what turned the tide for us in the second half," Gohl said. "But Alex was very important in that. She was our biggest catalyst."

That catalyst role started way back on a September morning. That's when Andrews, one day after becoming engaged, came buzzing over to Gohl's office door.

Marriage and the rest of her life was still a year away. Basketball season was right now. No way was she going to let it slip away.

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