Syracuse center Kayla Alexander was selected eighth overall in the first round of the WNBA Draft on Monday night by the San Antonio Silver Stars.

The 6-foot-4 Alexander, a product of Milton (Ontario) District High School, set the all-time Syracuse scoring record with 2,024 career points. She has also set the SU standard for blocks (350), field goals (736) and free throws made (552), and tied the record for games played (140).

She ranks second in rebounds with 970, trailing 2010 graduate Nicole Michael.

The selection was no surprise when considering mock drafts posted on ESPN.com. The website’s four experts all projected Alexander to go somewhere between the sixth and 10th selections in the draft.

But the pick deserves recognition considering Alexander is the first ever Orange player to be selected within the draft’s first three rounds. No SU player had been taken since Beth Record, who was taken in the fourth round in 2001, 64th overall, by the Los Angeles Sparks.

Along with fellow seniors Carmen Tyson-Thomas and Elashier Hall, Alexander helped form the nucleus of this year’s squad that finished third in the Big East conference and earned a No. 7 seed in the NCAA tournament before falling to Creighton, 61-56, in the first round. In that game, Alexander led the Orange with 23 points and eight rebounds in 31 minutes.

In an interview last week, Alexander maintained that she hopes to teach social studies when her playing days are over.

Alexander didn’t even consider playing college basketball until she received a recruiting letter from Vanderbilt in ninth grade. From that point, she realized basketball could serve as the path to a free college education, and resolved to improve as much as she could. She didn’t even pick up the sport until seventh grade, when a friend encouraged her to join a local team because of her height.

Alexander easily led the Orange in scoring in 2012-13, averaging 17.9 points per game while adding 8.7 rebounds. Tyson-Thomas and Hall also added double-digit averages, at 10.6 and 10 points per game, respectively.

Alexander scored 20 or more points 13 times this season, including 34-point efforts against Wagner on Dec. 4 and Villanova in the Big East tournament quarterfinals March 10.

The Silver Stars open their season on May 24 with a home matchup against the Indiana Fever. San Antonio went 21-13 last season and lost to the Sparks in the Western Conference semifinals.

Published on April 16, 2013 at 12:51 am

Contact Kevin: kmprisei@syr.edu