Former KC hoops stars help lead their team to NCAA Tournament. They open vs. USC

Corpus Christi, Texas, is a long way from Kansas City, but it might feel just a little bit closer this week.

A pair of former KC girls basketball stars have helped lead the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women’s hoops team to the first NCAA Tournament berth in program history.

Alecia Westbrook, Park Hill South High School class of 2019, and Paige Allen, Oak Park class of 2020, are key members of an Islanders squad that takes a No. 16 seed into the 2024 national tourney.

The task is a tall one: TAMU-CC (23-8) faces top-seeded USC (26-5) in a first-round game Saturday at the Galen Center in Los Angeles. But Westbrook, Allen and the rest of this year’s Islanders squad have been defying long odds all season long.

Westbrook, a super-senior listed as a forward/center, and Allen, a senior guard, got their respective start in hoops at a young age. Both played on Della Lamb teams in Kansas City and then were rivals at their local high schools.

This season, each was named to the All-Southland Conference defensive team. It’s Westbrook’s third such honor: She was last season’s conference and defensive player of the year.

Allen, meanwhile, this past week earned Southland Conference Tournament MVP honors as TAMU-CC beat top-seede Lamar 68-68 for the league-tourney title and automatic NCAA Tournament bid.

Westbrook broke nine school records at Park Hill South and proceeded to shatter six more at TAMU-CC, while Allen still holds the North Kansas City School District record for most points in a basketball career, boys or girls.

For TAMU-CC, this year’s NCAA Tournament berth was a long time coming. The Islanders were a favored entrant into the 2019-20 league tourney until the COVID pandemic shutdown.

TAMU-CC proceeded to make the Southland tournament in 2022 and 2023 but lose in the semifinals to lower-seeded teams.

There was no such stumble last week. Seeded second for the Southland tourney, the Islanders got 22 points and 12 rebounds from Allen (in a game-high 36 minutes) and 17 points and five rebounds from Westbrook in the title game vs. Lamar.

And now they’ll be squaring off against the Trojans from USC in a weekend matinee Saturday in the NCAA tourney’s Portland 3 Regional.

Interestingly, perhaps especially to observers in Westbrook and Allen’s hometown, the winner will take on the winner of a first-round game between No. 8 seed Kansas and No. 9 seed Michigan in Round 2.

This story was originally published March 18, 2024 at 11:43 AM.