BEAUMONT, Texas — A Beaumont native helped make Louisiana State University history after the women's basketball team won the school's first ever NCAA championship title.
The LSU Tigers beat the Iowa Hawkeyes 102-85 Sunday night in Dallas.
Among the LSU women's basketball team is Beaumont native and Legacy Christian Academy graduate, Alexis Morris.
Morris scored 21 points and handed out nine assists during Sunday night's game.
"It means a lot to be able to do it for the fans, to do it for the history, and the one's who came before us," Morris said in a post-game conference.
Morris' journey began at Legacy Christian Academy where Coach Molly Montgomery now leads the women's basketball team.
Montgomery took over the program nine months after Morris graduated, but even to this day, she and her players have watched the star guard closely.
The coach says nothing is as inspiring or motivating than living proof of how hard work pays off.
"It's super fun that I'm able to kind of use that, to be like look what can happen if you just focus and work hard with it, it's so nice to have that to kind of look up to," Montgomery said.
For Morris, college was a journey full of peaks and valleys.
Legendary Coach Kim Mulkey recruited her to play at Baylor University. A year later, Mulkey kicked Morris off the team for violating team rules.
Fast forward to Morris' senior year, the pair reunited at LSU to make history.
Montgomery says Morris' basketball career is a reflection about how important second chances can be.
"Alexis's story is amazing, everyone talks about second chances with her, at least here at Legacy Christian, we believe that," Montgomery said. "We are a Christian institution, and we know that our God is a second chance, third chance, fourth chance God, and he never leaves."
And above all the success, Morris will always be true to her roots in the 409.
"She stays here, her name is here, so, she's just an inspiration to a lot of our students," Montgomery said.
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