FARMINGTON -- Farmington girls basketball coach Brad Johnson welcomed students, staff, fans and family to celebrate the opportunity for a pair of seniors to continue their careers in college.
Senior guard Madisyn Pense, a three-year starter; and classmate Alexis Roach, who broke into the starting lineup as a junior after transferring from Siloam Springs, each signed national letters of intent on Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018.
"First of all I want to tell you how much I appreciate you guys for coming out and supporting these two ladies," Johnson said. "It's a tremendous day for two, very tremendous people. You don't find two better people than Alexis Roach and Madisyn Pense."
The seniors were among six girls from Farmington's 2017-2018 5A West Conference tournament champions and state quarterfinal girls basketball team (26-6 overall, 12-3 conference) to receive postseason honors.
Madisyn Pense
"Madisyn will be signing today with the University of Central Missouri, who is the defending Division II women's national champion, and they are currently ranked No. 1 in the nation in preseason," Johnson said. "They started their year, I think they are 2-0 right now. She'll be playing for Hall-of-Fame coach Dave Slifer, who has a tremendous track record of not only producing great teams, but also producing great citizens from the University of Central Missouri."
Last season Pense was named 5A West All-Conference, and 5A All-State by disrupting opponents on both ends of the floor. Pense played in all 32 games, logging 23.5 minutes-per-contest. She scored at a clip of 12.9 points each time out to go with 2.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.8 steals, and 0.1 blocks.
Pense was second on the team in steals with 59 while only committing 26 fouls measuring out at a 2:27 steal-to-foul ratio. Pense's awareness led the team in total deflections with 70.
Pense developed a proficiency for driving past defenders chasing her on the perimeter to get to the basket. She connected on 48-of-94 shots for 51 percent inside her familiar station as a notable 3-point shooter. She was successful on 95-of-253 trifectas for a solid 38 percent. Pense played 752 minutes, the most of any Lady Cardinal. She was good on 31-0f-47 foul shots for 66 percent.
Alexis Roach
Roach signed with Evangel University, of Springfield, Mo., an NAIA school coming off a 5-24 record last season, but with five wins in five games to begin the 2018-2019 season.
"Next year she will be playing for coach Megan Leuzinger, who is a brand new coach at Evangel," Johnson said. "Alexis is the cornerstone of her first official recruiting class so she's going to have a unique opportunity to step in and help build on what has been a traditionally strong, NAIA program."
As a junior during the 2017-2018 season, Roach was honored as 5A West All-Conference, and 5A All-State Tournament team. Roach transferred from Siloam Springs. During her junior year at Farmington, she took the court 32 times as a Lady Cardinal playing 20.3 minutes-per-game. Roach scored in double figures, producing 11.7 points, 4.0 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 1.2 steals, and 0.1 blocks. Roach typically avoided foul trouble. She was whistled for 1.8 fouls-per-game while committing 1.8 turnovers-per-game.
Roach played 650 minutes, emerging as a new dynamic for the Lady Cardinals as an athletic player capable of finishing around the basket using her quickness to slash past defenders. Roach was a frequent target of her teammates, catching outlet passes on-the-run to get easy transition buckets. She made 143-of-246 field goal attempts leading the team in overall field goal percentage at 58.
Cardinal Celebration
"Both of these young ladies are high character, they're selfless teammates," Johnson said. "They're relentless workers and they've both been extremely coachable. This is certainly a celebration of them and it's also a celebration of their families because they don't get to where they're at today without the love and support, and the guidance of strong families that have been there to kind of push them, to love them through things, maybe kick them in the rear end every now and then and to get them to where they are. So, today is a culmination of all that."
Johnson shared research he and the Cardinal basketball staff have done recently, telling those in attendance there are just under half a million girls basketball high school players throughout the country. According to Johnson, only 6.5 percent of those kids get an opportunity to get their college paid for to play basketball, which he said puts Roach and Pense among elite company. Johnson attributed scholarship offers to each player's work ethic and supporting cast.
"Both these young ladies are tremendous representatives of our school," Johnson said. "They're tremendous representatives of our community, and they embody exactly what we want Lady Cardinal basketball players to look like, act like, and just be. And so with that, I want to congratulate them both on this opportunity."
Sports on 11/21/2018