Photo of Alexis Carmosino by Russell Marwitz/True To The Cru/russellmarwitz.com
BELTON-A year ago, Alexis Carmosino did not know where her final collegiate season would be spent. But she knew who she would be playing for.
As a junior college recruit in Phoenix, Arizona several years ago, Carmosino became close with Katie Novak-Lenoir, who was recruiting her as the head coach at Sul Ross State. Drawn to Novak-Lenoir’s coaching style and care for her players, Carmosino soon headed to Alpine, Texas, quickly becoming one of the Lobos’ most impactful players.
“She showed that she really cared, and that she believed in me,” Carmosino recalled in a recent conversation with True To The Cru.
The leading scorer and rebounder on the 2021-22 team, Carmosino helped SRSU to its first winning season since 2003 in her second year with the program. Shortly after the 14-11 campaign wrapped up, Novak-Lenoir took the head coaching job at D2 Hawaii Pacific, and Carmosino ended up spending last season sidelined by injury, with one year of eligibility remaining.
It did not take her long to decide that her final year of college basketball would be spent playing for Novak-Lenoir once again. The question was where.
“I was going to go wherever she was going, whether that was in Hawaii or somewhere else,” Carmosino remembers. “I just wanted to be with her for my last year.”
So when Novak-Lenoir was named the head coach at UMHB on April 19, 2023, Carmosino took her talents further east, staying within the American Southwest Conference. The two have reunited in Belton, and the impact has been nothing short of noteworthy.
“It’s an honor to play for her again,” Carmosino said. “She’s a really good coach and an even better person. She’s helped me with my career, gaining confidence, and has helped me grow off-the-court as well.”
In her first season as head coach, Novak-Lenoir has guided the Crusaders to the second-longest winning streak in the program’s D-III history, and Carmosino has emerged as a hard-nosed, do-it-all type of player in UMHB’s starting lineup.
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That was no more evident than on Saturday afternoon, as The Cru hosted Concordia (TX) with two of its starters absent from the lineup. Carmosino took charge, playing a team-high 36 minutes in an 84-68 home victory, as UMHB tightened its grip on first place in the conference standings. Her 18 points were a team-high, and put her over the career 1,000-point mark, meaning UMHB now has two 1,000-point scorers in its starting lineup, with Carmosino and Arieona Rosborough.
“There’s definitely a lot of chemistry [on this team],” Carmosino said. “Everyone is eventually going to step up. It’s just a matter of whose day it is.”
Through the first 17 games of the 2023-24 campaign, Carmosino has had her fair share of memorable shooting days, having fit rather seamlessly into the Crusader offense. But the fourth quarter performance two weeks ago at then-No. 10/15 Hardin-Simmons certainly sticks out.
With The Cru’s double-digit winning streak on the brink of being snapped inside a hostile road environment, Carmosino stepped up with 14 of UMHB’s 26 points in the final 10 minutes of regulation. That included a key 3-pointer as UMHB completed its 15-point comeback, with Carmosino giving the Crusaders a 72-71 lead. UMHB emerged with a 93-89 win, and Carmosino’s late offensive surge had plenty to do with it.
“It was really exciting to be part of it,” Carmosino said. “Hardin-Simmons is such a good team, ranked 10th in the nation, so for us to beat them shows how good we are as a team. Even though we were down, we stayed strong and played together to come back and win in overtime. When we hit those shots [late in the game], I feel like we knew we could win.”
One of the marks of this new-look UMHB program under Novak-Lenoir’s leadership is the pace that The Cru plays with, particularly when it comes to moving the ball up the court in transition. It is a style that Carmosino thrived in while at Sul Ross State, and that has continued in Belton. UMHB’s 80.1 points per game currently ranks ninth in the country, with plenty of fast-break points often to be found each time the Crusaders take the floor.
Unsurprisingly, it was the speed of the game that Carmosino was initially drawn to when she began playing as a middle schooler in Arizona.
“It was definitely the fast pace,” Carmosino said, when asked what made her fall in love with the sport growing up. “90 percent of the time, you’re running. It kept me engaged.”
She also had a background in sports that required both speed and stamina, having taken up soccer and swimming well before basketball ever came into view. She notes that in swimming, “you have to be a different type of athlete,” considering the noticeable differences that come with a sport that takes place entirely in water.
Her multi-sport background prepped her for a stellar basketball career at the high school level, eventually landing Carmosino a spot at Phoenix College in the fall of 2018. In her two years as a junior college prospect, the 5-foot-10 forward went from averaging 2.2 points and 1.6 rebounds per game in 27 contests as a freshman to averaging a steady 6.5 points and 5.6 boards during her sophomore year.
Not to mention, as is common at the JUCO level, the competition she faced on a weekly basis was of a very high caliber.
“It really helped develop me as a player,” Carmosino said. “The coach I had there, Kristy Kincaid, was wonderful. She’s one of the nicest and best coaches I’ve ever had. The conference that we played in had McDonald’s All-Americans and players like that who would have an issue at their D-I school and would play a year at junior college to regain their eligibility. It taught me to be tough, especially since I was undersized there. Even though I was shorter than them, I still had to get the rebound, or find a way to shoot over them. It was a big jump coming from high school to the JUCO level, but it definitely helped [in my transition to SRSU].”
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Just as she solidified herself within the SRSU rotation upon arrival in Alpine, Carmosino’s presence in Belton has been impactful in what will be her lone season with The Cru. She has worked to increase her shooting range—evidenced by her 3-point shooting—and is one of two players to have started all 17 games this season.
But even more than the individual numbers, Carmosino has taken great pride in helping UMHB ascend to first place in the ASC, with a perfect 9-0 record in league play still intact. The Crusaders have fared especially well in difficult road environments, and will get another dose of road duels in the coming days.
UMHB faces ETBU in Thursday’s 5:30 p.m. duel in Marshall, Texas, before battling LeTourneau at 1 p.m. on Saturday. With a win on Thursday, the Crusaders would achieve the second-longest winning streak in program history, at 17 straight victories.
“Road wins are definitely big,” Carmosino said. “We just need to stay focused and stay together as a team to remain strong.”
