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Carlisle senior on the verge of school record

Alexis Murphy says career scoring mark not individual record to her.

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1:51 AM Friday, January 27, 2012

By Rick Cassano

Staff Writer

CARLISLE — The march toward individual history has brought Alexis Murphy to a simple conclusion: It isn’t individual at all.

Coaches. Teammates. Relatives. Fans. She can’t list all the people who have helped her, and it doesn’t matter. She’s taking them all to the top of the mountain with her.

Barring a twist of fate, Murphy will become Carlisle High School’s all-time girls basketball scoring leader Saturday at Cincinnati Christian.

Murphy, a senior point guard, ranks second with 1,140 career points. Heather (Imfeld) Conger, her former teacher, has 1,144.

It’s hard to say exactly what will go through Murphy’s mind when the big moment comes. Somewhere in there will be Jenny Standifer. Her mom.

“Talk about an amazing person,” Murphy said. “She had me in high school and gave up all her dreams for me. She probably could’ve gone anywhere she wanted for soccer, but she raised me. She’s done everything for me. I’ve never had to ask for anything. I have all that I need plus more. And she’s made sure of that.

“I can’t tell you how much I love my mom for all of that,” she added. “I can’t say it enough.”

An impact player from the first day

Murphy has played in 79 games during her four-year Carlisle career. The Indians are 55-24. She’s started every game.

“Some kids come along and you just know,” said Randy Glover, in his fifth season as Carlisle’s head coach. “Alexis chose to make this something that was a passion for her.”

Murphy has led the Indians in scoring all four years. She’s averaging 17.2 points per game this year.

Murphy is versatile. She’s a 3-point threat. She’s a slasher. She’ll bang for rebounds. She’s an annoying defender. And she’s a distributor with vision.

“She’s always looking to push you more than you think you can go,” said Carlisle senior center Jessica Allen, who started playing basketball at Murphy’s urging. “She’ll take the shot if it needs to be taken. She’ll make the pass if it needs to be passed. She’s a team player.”

Murphy calls junior guard Morgan Thomas the defensive leader on the team. They’ve been teammates for years.

“She’s like my guardian,” Thomas said. “I know she wants to break this record, but she’s not flaunting it to her teammates. She wants to win more than she wants to break the record.”

Murphy said she needs to sharpen her shooting skills and become “an automatic shooter.” She knows there are plenty of girls with more skills. But she challenges anyone to match her work ethic.

Opposing coaches have taken notice. Madison coach John Rossi often talks about her.

“The main thing is her attitude and work ethic,” Rossi said. “She’s been a great ambassador for that program. She came over after last week’s game and said, ‘Coach, you’ve got a great team.’ When you can do that right after a difficult loss, I think that shows what kind of kid she is.”

Conger waits for her record to fall

Heather Conger is a sixth-grade math teacher at Chamberlain Middle School in Carlisle. Not long ago, she had a student named Alexis Murphy.

“She was always a very friendly, hard-working kid,” Conger said. “She knew about my record. I think she had her eye on it for quite some time.”

Conger graduated from Carlisle in 1995. She was Heather Imfeld back then, and she became queen of the Indians’ point hill.

Carlisle won its only Southwestern Buckeye League title in 1994-95 and advanced to the Division III regional semifinals, where the Indians got drilled by Springfield Kenton Ridge 94-54.

Conger was mostly a shooting guard/small forward for Carlisle and had a pretty good teammate in Heather Lieungh, who scored 1,135 career points. Jennifer Parr was also on that team. She played at Xavier.

Conger went on to become the all-time leading scorer at Miami University Middletown and did some coaching at Carlisle, but gave it up when she had children. She is a 35-year-old mother of two, both under the age of 5.

“I feel bad that I’ve only seen Alexis play a real game maybe once,” Conger said. “I think it was two years ago. I was amazed at how good she is handling the ball. She’s better at that than I was for sure.”

Making a choice with basketball

Softball was Murphy’s primary sport. She started playing almost literally as a toddler.

But about the time Murphy became a seventh-grader, basketball reached out and grabbed her. She had played for several years and liked soccer as well, but suddenly, basketball was front and center.

“My (stepfather) tells me I’m 10 times better at softball,” Murphy said. “I think that’s what made me not like it, because I was so good at it. Basketball wasn’t my natural sport, so every bit of skill, I had to work on by myself. I didn’t want it to come naturally.”

That drive inevitably led to a desire to play at higher levels. Coaches like Ronnie Tabor of the Carlisle travel program and Steve Hutchinson of the Dayton Metro AAU club were influential in her development.

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