FEATURE | LaPorta Leaving Her Mark at UMSL

Rebounding might be one of the most underrated skills in basketball, but it’s what senior women’s basketball player Alex LaPorta excels at on the court. 

She enters her final season for the Tritons second all-time in that category and is 265 rebounds shy of the career record, which has stood for 28 years.

But rebounding is not all the two-time All-GLVC performer knows how to do. LaPorta needs just 103 points to become the program’s 16th 1,000-point scorer and she already ranks sixth all-time in career steals (127) and ninth in career assists (221). No other player in program history currently has their name in the career top 10 for rebounds, assists and steals. 

“In all the years I’ve played basketball, I have never really been the go-to scorer, so I had to find other ways to stay on the floor. And that has come with rebounding and looking to get defensive steals and then setting my teammates up to score.”

LaPorta says she pays attention to some of her numbers, but added that as long as the team is getting wins and accomplishing their goals, everything else will fall into place. 

The Highland, Ill., native was actually a late recruit for head coach Katie Vaughn, after LaPorta decided to play basketball instead of volleyball in college. UMSL was the only official visit she took. 

And speaking of family, LaPorta is not the only athlete in her family. In fact, she comes from a household of athletes. Older sister, Olivia, played NCAA Division I volleyball at Fordham, while younger brother Sam, is a sophomore on the Iowa football team. Younger sister, Bella, is a senior at Highland High School, excelling at volleyball and basketball. Her parents, Staci and Joe, were also both college athletes with dad playing football at William Jewell and mom playing basketball and softball at Rend Lake. 

“We’ve just always been around a plethora of sports so we’re all super competitive, which drives it.”

The LaPorta siblings are all close and enjoy watching each other play. 

“We definitely support each other as much as we can. I think half of my closet is their school’s attire.”

Growing up in an athletic family has also paid dividends for LaPorta. 

“None of us were highly recruited or were the top prospect. We’ve all had to work hard and it’s cool to see that you can work hard and earn your playing time.”

After six months off the court with her teammates, LaPorta is excited to be back hard at work in the Mark Twain gym. The Tritons were able to get on the court together a couple weeks ago, something they all hadn’t gotten to do since the season ended in early March. 

“It’s great to be back. We’re still doing a lot of non-contact stuff, but once we are able to start scrimmaging, I think that’s when it will really hit that we are back.”

LaPorta knows this year will look different than her first three years, but will still savor every moment.