Hometown Heroines: Part Two
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By Amari Dryden
Some players can’t wait to leave home to go to college. Others can’t wait to rep their city across their chest and be the hometown heroine they aspired to be when they first picked up a basketball. There are over a hundred players in Division I who play for their hometown team. In this series, we’ve narrowed the list down to players who are ranked within the top 10% nationally or in their conference in at least three different statistics and who whose hometowns are within a five-mile radius of their college. We’ll tell you about a handful of players each week through the end of the regular season. Here’s the second installment.
Alexis Burpo, Forward, Sophomore
School: Murray State
Hometown: Murray, KY
Lex Mayes, Guard, Sophomore
School: Murray State
Hometown: Murray, KY
Macey Turley, Guard, Sophomore
School: Murray State
Hometown: Murray, KY
Alexis Burpo, Lex Mayes and Macey Turley have been playing on the same team for the past six years, all playing together at Murray High School before heading two miles north to Murray State. After playing all those years together, they haven’t skipped a beat in college. Each player is ranked in the top three for the Racers in every statistic except blocks. One of them has been a leader in points, rebounds or assists in each game. All three have been in the starting lineup in all but one game since November 26th.
In relation to each other, these sophomores all had a part in each other’s success. Turley and Burpo are ranked fourth and sixth in assists per game in the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) dealing out 4.0 and 3.8 assists, respectively. Between 40% and 45% of all three players’ assists are to each other. For instance, 25 out of 87 of Turley’s total assists were to Mayes (28.7%) and 12 were to Burpo (13.8%). Ten out of 65 of Burpo’s total assists were to Mayes (15.4%) and 16 were to Turley (24.6%). Mayes is typically on the receiving end of her teammates’ assists, only averaging 1.4 assists per game, but 13 of 29 of her assists were to either Burpo or Turley (42.5%).
Alexis Burpo has upped her game in the new year, earning career-highs in almost every stat in the past three weeks. She’s record double figures in points and rebounds in five of her last eleven games. She recorded her third double-double in a row, amounting to four in total this season, after an 11-point and 15-rebound performance in a win against SIUE on February 1st. On January 30th she was three assists shy of a triple-double after tallying 21 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists against Eastern Illinois. She has been especially dominant on the glass in conference play, ranking second in offensive rebounds per game (2.9), third in total rebounds per game (9.2) and fifth in defensive rebounds per game (6.2). Her rebound totals rank her in the 95th and 96th percentile nationally with 168 total rebounds (96.3%), 57 offensive rebounds (96.2%) and 111 defensive rebounds (95.7%). She’s the only player in the OVC ranked in the top ten in assists per game and total rebounds per game.
Lex Mayes is in the 90th percentile nationally in five stats: two point percentage (94.6%), total three-pointers made (95.5%), three-pointers made per game (94.1%), three point rate (92.6%) and total steals (90.7%). Thirty out of her 41 total three-pointers made so far this season were assisted by Burpo or Turley, amounting to 73.2%.On January 25th, she tied her career-high making five out of ten three-pointers against Tennessee State. Mayes leads the Racers in points per scoring attempt (1.07), two-point percentage (56.6%) and free throw rate (26.4%).
Turley was No. 1 in the state of Kentucky in free throw shooting in high school at 89.6% and has maintained her high percentage in college shooting 89.4% as a sophomore (35th nationally). Last season she went on a 29-free-throw streak, tied for the third longest streak in Murray State history. Turley played for Murray High School when she was in the 7th and 8th grade, altogether amassing a 179-27 record in her six years playing for the Lady Tigers. According to an interview with the Courier Journal, her high school coach Wyatt Foust called her “a once-in-a-lifetime player” and claimed, “If she’s not Freshman of the Year in the OVC, the steak dinner is on me.” Turley did indeed win Freshman of the Year in the Ohio Valley Conference last year, ranking sixth in total assists and 11th in total points in the conference, the highest freshman on each list. So far this season, Macey Turley has scored 365 points and dealt 87 assists that have led to another 244 points. Out of Murray State’s total 1,394 points, she is responsible for 43.7% of them.
Erin DeGrate, Center, Redshirt Senior
School: Baylor University
Hometown: Waco, TX
Juicy Landrum, Guard, Senior
School: Baylor University
Hometown: Waco, TX
Erin DeGrate and Juicy Landrum played together at La Vega High School in Waco, TX, just five miles from Baylor’s campus. When Landrum was a sophomore and DeGrate was a junior, they led their high school to a 35-0 record and a state championship. But this season is the first time they’ve played together since DeGrate graduated, as DeGrate played her freshman year at Louisville and her sophomore and junior years at Texas Tech.
Erin DeGrate is one of the tallest players in Division-I, standing at 6-foot-6. Her minutes are limited--she mainly comes in when either Lauren Cox or NaLyssa Smith needs to rest--but she makes her presence known once she’s on the floor. She has a 11.5% offensive rebound rate (92nd percentile nationally), a field goal percentage of 51.6% (92nd percentile nationally) and scores 0.95 points per play (90th percentile). She scored in double-figures in her four out of her first five games as a Lady Bear, averaging 12.8 points. Her minutes have decreased as the season has gone on, but she is a great reserve player for Baylor to have heading into the final stretch of the regular season.
Juicy Landrum was prolific in high school, averaging 22.8 points, 4.8 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 3.9 steals as a senior. Consistency has been her game in her junior and senior seasons at Baylor as her stats are almost identical. Her scoring role is minimized, averaging just over 11 points per game, but she is more of a distributor, dishing out 3.5 assists per game, and is wrangling in 5.2 rebounds. When she does score it’s typically a three-pointer as 57.1% of her total points come from three. She came into her senior season ranked seventh all-time at Baylor in three-point field goal percentage shooting 39.7%. She’s shooting 46.9% this season as of February 11th. Landrum set an NCAA three-point record against Arkansas State scoring 14 three-pointers leading to a career-high 42 points. No wonder she’s in the 95th percentile nationally with 2.1 makes a game from beyond the arc.
All stats are from Her Hoop Stats for games through February 11.
Thanks for reading the Her Hoop Stats Newsletter. If you like our work, be sure to check out our stats site, our podcast, and our social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.