Alexa Smiddy has never been to a Kentucky-Indiana All-Star Game but she knows how special it is to be part of the series. However, the Southwestern point guard is already contemplating what it will take for Kentucky to win.
“I know they (Indiana) have a bunch of D-1 players on there. I am sure they will play very fast and I hope we can stop them. They have a bunch of 6-foot girls and we have maybe two or three. It will be difficult but I am excited to see what we can do,” said Smiddy.
“I know most of the girls on our team and have played with most of them in summer ball the past couple of years. I think we will be okay.”
Two other 12th Region players — Macey Blevins of Wayne County and Lara Akers of Danville — are all-star teammates.
“It is a lot more comforting having them on the team. I know both of them, so that makes it easier,” Smiddy said. “I can talk to them and they know what I do and I know what they do.”
Smiddy does a lot.
She averaged 15 points and 4.4 rebounds per game for Southwestern (20-4), the 12th Region champion. She shot 42 percent overall and 35 percent from 3-point range. Smiddy is still disappointed her team lost 78-67 to Anderson County in the first round of the state tournament, especially since she got in early foul trouble — something she never did. She finished with 12 points against Anderson.
” I don’t think I will ever get over that loss because I had three fouls in the first half and let my little sister (sophomore Ayden Smiddy) down. But you win some and lose some, right,” Smiddy said. “I fouled out one time in my whole high school career. I have never had more than two fouls more than once or twice.
“It was crazy. They (game officials) accidentally called one foul on me that was on my little sister. We look alike, so I understand but it just sucks.”
Smiddy said the fouls kept her from being as aggressive going to the basket as she normally would have been for fear of picking up a charge. She’s convinced Southwestern would have been in the state final if she had not been in foul trouble.
“Not saying we would have won the whole thing but we could have been right there,” Smiddy said.
That competitive attitude is what makes teammates love her and opponents dislike playing against her. Her high school coach, Junior Modlen, believes she was the state’s best point guard.
“I think it is an honor when people say that to me,” Smiddy said about being disliked by opponents. “I used to play with my brother and he was like five years older than me so I got beat up a lot when I was little but it helped me out. It made me tougher.”
She says she’ll remember her teammates and coach more than anything else about her prep career. She dates Molden’s son and considers the coach “another dad” to her.
“Junior and I are really close. Junior has been everything to me. I just can’t say enough about the man,” Smiddy said. “I loved playing with my sister this year. She was on the team the past two years but this year she really played and it was an honor to play with her. I hope she liked to play with me but I am sure I was probably too hard on her at times.
The coach says Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville “stole” Smiddy by signing her early during the COVID-19 pause. He calls her the state’s best point guard.
“A lot of people think I could have gone somewhere different but I like that Trevecca liked me from the beginning. I like the coach there,” Smiddy said.
Smiddy would love to cement her Southwestern legacy with wins over Indiana but she’s thrilled to be only the third player from her school to play in the Kentucky-Indiana series. Sisters Devin and Danny Fothergill, who were also soccer standouts, were the first two Southwestern players to do it.
“They are my neighbors. I looked up to them when I was little and started at Southwestern,” Smiddy said. “I would sit and watch them play. It is really cool that the only three players from Southwestern ever on the team all live in the same neighborhood.
“It would be good for Kentucky and be good for Southwestern to have a player on the team that beat Indiana. I think a lot of my teammates are coming to watch me play. I think even if we lose by 100, they would still come to support me. But I really believe we can win.”
