JORDAN PATTERSON
News Editor
Even though senior accounting major Alexis Cheatham just crossed the 1,000 point milestone and was named SUNYAC player of week, she’s focused on a different achievement.
“I was happy about it,” Cheatham said. “ I care more about winning though, so as long as we’re winning.”
She was quick to bring up the loss from Tuesday that brought the Fredonia Blue Devils women’s basketball team to 4-1.
The team fell to Nazareth College (3-1) 74-65, but during the game Cheatham entered an exclusive club. She is the 10th female Blue Devil to score 1,000 points in her career.
“I told her she’d be a 1,000 point scorer,” Assistant Coach Richard Norton said. “I was the one who recruited her … she’s something special.”
Cheatham shared her thoughts on scoring 1,000 points and admitted she’s relieved.
“Yeah, I was happy about it. I’m glad to get it out of the way too, early in the season … [so there’s] no pressure later in the season,” Cheatham said.
The five-foot-six guard from Lockport, New York is no stranger to accolades. In 2014, she was chosen by conference coaches as the SUNYAC Rookie of the Year and won the Fredonia Female Rookie of the Year award.
During the week of Nov. 20, Cheatham’s outstanding performance is what got her recognized by Fredonia and SUNYAC. On the 22nd, she scored 22 points in a 86-81 win against Hilbert University. In the Blue Devils’ following game, Cheatham finished with 17 points that included five 3-pointers in the 77-68 victory over Pitt-Bradford.
Her overall average is what essentially earned her the player of the week award, but it seemed as if Cheatham wasn’t really keeping track.
“I’m not sure what the exact stats were,” she said, before adding that she averaged about four assists per game.
In fact, Cheatham averaged 19.5 points and 4 assists in those two games and is averaging 16.8 points per game and 4.8 assists on the season. According to her, this is an improvement from last season, but she said it could be attributed to their lead scorer from last year graduating.
“I definitely am averaging more for points [than last year], probably solely because Sabrina [graduated],” Cheatham said.
Sabrina Macaulay averaged 16.1 points in her final year and put up 33 points in Fredonia’s first home playoff game last year.
Cheatham added, “Coach always wants each player to step up more, to contribute to her points,” referring to the production that the team is missing from Macaulay’s departure.
“[Alexis] was one of our leading scorers last year,” Norton said. “When Alexis goes, we go.”
Norton also acknowledged Alexis’ personal talent before admitting she cares more about the team, saying “she puts the team before her own personal achievements.”
Despite all that the team and Cheatham have accomplished this year in just five games, the primary goal is still ahead of the Blue Devils.
“[Our goal is] definitely to try to win SUNYAC, the league and the championship, and try to get another playoff game at home, that’d be cool,” Cheatham said.
Last year, the team hosted their first ever SUNYAC playoff game.
“So, that would be cool to actually just host the whole tournament, to be like the number one seed,” Cheatham explained.
It doesn’t stop there though, as she has her eyes set on winning the championship too. Cheatham got a taste of championships in high school when her freshman year and junior year teams won the Section Six Championships. Included in her goals for the season are ones that sometimes get overlooked.
“My other goals are just to be the top team in defense, rebounding, little things like that,” she added.
According to Cheatham, her love for sports started when she was young. Her father always played, including a year in college. She was raised in Lockport with five other siblings and is the second youngest.
Basketball doesn’t stop for her after she goes home either.
“I like watching basketball, I love Kobe Bryant even though he retired. I just like sports in general too,” she said.
She also enjoys traveling. Among her travels, she made it out to Los Angeles last year to watch Bryant, her idol, and the Lakers play the Atlanta Hawks.
It wasn’t Kobe’s last game, but when asked if she watched his final game she responded, “Of course.”
Cheatham’s father has a huge family and their family reunions allow her to travel the country.
Back in Fredonia, she enjoys listening to music. Apart from Drake, Future and Dej Loaf , she doesn’t have one song in particular that she listens to before each game. She normally lets her teammate, sophomore business major Justice Nauden, handle the pregame music.
“I don’t really play the music in the locker room,” Cheatham said. “Justice on our team, she’s like the DJ.”
Admittedly, Cheatham understands that, despite the great start, there is room for improvement on the team in areas like defense and being more consistent with their shot attempts.
“We’re not horrible at defense, just sometimes we let up and we got out rebounded a lot of times,” she said.
On offense she explained that, “When we’re on, we’re on, and then like the other game on Tuesday we were off at shooting and it just showed.
“So far I think we are good, but in order to get as good as we were last year we need to keep pushing each other at practice,” she continued.
It was apparent that Cheatham would take winning and winning a lot over these personal accolades every time.
“[The accolades] matter but I would definitely prefer winning over anything,” she said. “In the end, I would trade those for winning SUNYAC, for sure.”