RAM IN ACTION: Daisy Alaeze

For the women’s basketball team, the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament is just around the corner, with the championship potentially being the peak performance for the Lady Rams this year.

“I don’t even think we have gotten to our greatest high yet to be honest, but some of our lows would be that we’ve lost really close games,” senior forward Adaeze “Daisy” Alaeze said.  “We had the chance to win, but we’ve definitely learned from them so I believe all our lows are leading to our greatest high that hasn’t come yet.”

Alaeze, a four-time first team Baltimore Sun All-Metro selection and four-time Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference All-Star at Roland Park Country School in Baltimore has had an exceptional career at VCU.

During her freshman year, Alaeze was the only player to start in all 14 A-10 games averaging 6.8 points per game and 2.8 rebounds per game.

Sophomore year she saw action in every game for the Rams, averaging 16.6 minutes per game along, with her career-best of scoring 21 points against Massachusetts.

As a junior, she celebrated a break-out season for the Black and Gold, registering a career-best 14 rebounds against Rhode Island, (one of five players to have 10+ rebounds in a game during the 2014-15 season), leading her to a spot on the All-Atlantic 10 Third-Team.

As her last season unfolds, the 5-foot-10 forward is leaving her final marks on the program, averaging 10.9 points and 5.9 rebounds per contest  with a 3-point percentage of 16.7 and a free throw percentage of 75.4.

With the personal goal of making the All-Conference Team for a second time in a row, along with contributing to a team goal of winning the A-10 Championship, the fourth-year collegiate athlete has a lot more than just the knowledge of the game of basketball to take with her upon graduation into the real world.

“The biggest thing that I think I have definitely learned is working through adversity,” Adaeze said. “When something is not going the way that I want it to or how I want it to, it’s pretty much putting your pride aside and getting the job done regardless of how you feel about a situation.”

Alaeze, an accounting major, said her short-term plans after walking across the stage in May includes eventually going to graduate school. Long-term, Alaeze said she hopes to work for an athletic department. Though not certain on what concentrated area she would like to get involved in, but is very determined to make a difference in young athletes who are pursuing their dreams.

“I want to be able to give back in some sort of way,” Alaeze said. “So I really want to come back to whatever, you know, program, school, firm, company and be able to have my focus be on student-athletes and to be able to help them progress and grow throughout college as I did.”

Malinka Walters, Contributing Writer