By Jim O'Hara
 
ROME, Ga. – Ieshia Alexander always had the drive and desire – not to mention a huge heart – to achieve success when she stepped on a basketball court growing up in Rome and becoming one of the best to ever play the game at Coosa High School.

Those God-given traits, however, are not reserved for the sport she so dearly loves.

Along with the love and support of her family that now includes her daughter Kayla, that same kind of drive and desire has allowed Alexander to successfully become a graduate of Shorter University, where she will soon add a master's degree to her undergraduate diploma, and where she is determined to extend her basketball career by helping the Lady Hawks basketball team extend their season.

"We all have to step up and play our roles so we can win," Alexander said as Shorter, which has secured its first-ever Gulf South Conference tournament berth in the first season the program has been eligible, closes out the regular season Saturday at 5 p.m. when the Lady Hawks visit Lee in Cleveland, Tenn., in a game that could improve the team's seeding for the tourney that begins next Tuesday.

"Our coaches have put everything on the line. We just have to go out and play," she said. "We don't need to think about anything else except winning."

Being able to focus on one thing is something that is imbedded in the 5-foot-6 soft-spoken guard's mindset and it's what helped guide her to Shorter.

After graduating from Coosa in 2009, Alexander signed with North Georgia University where she played as a freshman before departing to bring Kayla into the world and start her own family.

"I thought it was over," Alexander said her life as a collegiate student-athlete. "But I had my family and they wanted me to go back to school and play again."

That's when Shorter and women's basketball head coach Vic Mitchell entered into her life – and vice-versa.

"She wanted to get back into school and play again," Mitchell recalled, noting that Alexander was invited to play in some off-season pickup games and eventually enrolled at Shorter and joined the program.

Still, when the 2011-12 season began, Alexander wound up being red-shirted as the Lady Hawks boasted a talented and deep group of veterans. That, however, didn't deter Alexander.

"It was tough," she said. "We had such a good team. I practiced with them and ran with them – I just couldn't play. But I was able to compete with them and get back in the basketball form."

That she did.

In her first season (2012-13) wearing a Lady Hawks uniform, Alexander was the team's third leading scorer averaging 9.4 points a game and raised her game up another notch last year when she led the team averaging 12.8 points.

This season, Alexander is making her final year at Shorter one to remember as she leads the team in scoring (15.2) and assists (2.7) and well as pulling down 3.3 rebounds and coming up two steals a game.

"She's just a scorer and a handful for opposing defenses," said Mitchell of Alexander. "There are so many ways she can score.

"What she has done is a testament to her perseverance and desire," the coach added. "She has a tremendous desire to win."

And win in the overall scheme of life.

Said Alexander: "I'm glad it happened this way."