Alyssa DeAngelo had no idea exactly where she stood.
The 2020 Thomas Jefferson graduate is currently in the middle of her second consecutive season as Fairmont State’s leading scorer. The 5-foot-10 senior guard is averaging 22.2 points per game, which puts DeAngelo in some rarified air — as NCAA Division II’s top scorer.
“I did not expect it at all,” said the Jefferson Hills native. “I actually had a friend tell me the one day that I was, and I was like, ‘Wow.’”
DeAngelo has stood alone as Division II’s leading scorer through the Falcons’ first 10 games just ahead of Bloomsburg’s Katelin Starr, who has averaged 22.1 points per game.
“She’s willing to do anything just to make sure our team wins,” Fairmont State women’s basketball coach Stephanie Anderson said.
DeAngelo first jumped onto the scene in 2021 when she led all Mountain East Conference freshmen in scoring with an average of 13.1 points per game. After being named the conference’s freshman of the year, she went on to average 15.3 points per game as a sophomore and was named first-team all-conference alongside former teammate Sierra Kotchman, a Trinity graduate.
Then last season, DeAngelo cemented her status among the nation’s elite scorers, averaging a team-high 18.3 points per game. She also earned her second consecutive first-team all-conference selection.
“Alyssa has put a ton of work in,” Anderson said. “She’s capable of anything because of how hard she works in the offseason on her game and that’s all credit to her because in Division II, obviously, we send them home for the summer. It’s on them over those summer months to really change themselves as a player offensively.”
Anderson said DeAngelo worked extensively during the offseason on perfecting her jump shot and adding off-balance shots to her repertoire in addition to refining the other parts of her game.
“Alyssa has been a key piece of our offense the past couple of years so obviously people key in on her,” Anderson said. “We told her she needed to focus on shooting some off-balance shots because she gets those in ISO situations, like fade away layups and stuff, as well as her jump shot. Obviously her 3’s she works on extensively.”
DeAngelo is shooting .475% from the field and .417% from 3-point range, while also making .844% of her shots from the free-throw line. Just a season ago, she shot .376% from the field and .354% from beyond the 3-point arc.
“My summers, honestly, a lot of times are more rigorous than when I’m at school,” DeAngelo said.
Those training sessions centered around adding skill coming off of ball screens, refining her mid-range jumper and getting plenty of shots up to add consistency to her game, DeAngelo said.
“Confidence is a huge thing,” she said. “I was obviously an upperclassman last year, but I was still trying to figure out my place on the team. I knew I had a role, but I didn’t exactly know from a game-to-game situation what would happen. This year, I’m definitely more confident coming into every game. I don’t feel the same pressure I felt in previous years.”
And that has been apparent in Fairmont State’s position in the standings.
The Falcons (9-1, 5-0) are in first place in the Mountain East Conference ahead of Frostburg State (7-4, 5-1) and Wheeling (8-2, 4-1).
With all of her personal success, DeAngelo said maintaining her team’s hot start to the season is of the utmost importance.
“My ultimate goal is I want to win the conference championship,” she said. “If me staying as one of the top scorers in the nation gets us there, that’s all that matters.”
For Anderson, now in her fifth season as Fairmont State’s head coach, watching DeAngelo’s growth has been particularly special.
The three other seniors on the Falcons roster in addition to DeAngelo represent Anderson’s first full recruiting class.
“These kids have really grown the program,” Anderson said. “Their first year they won seven games, then they won, I think it was 15 or 16, and then 23 last year. The goal is this year we want to stay consistent on a daily basis, take care of game to game.
“Obviously, we are hunting for a championship,” she added. “We want a regional (NCAA tournament) bid. We want to make moves. I think that’s the next step for this team.”
Anderson said she has the perfect leader in DeAngelo.
“She’s extremely sweet,” Anderson said. “She thinks through everything. She’s a perfectionist. She cares a ton about people and she’s a perfectionist, that’s how I’d describe her.
“She’s great. How many times do you see a leading scorer and she couldn’t care less if somebody else has 30? I think that that’s huge because a lot of times that can be detrimental and it’s not.”
John is a copy editor and page designer at the Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at jsanta@unionprogress.com.