Alex Bessey of Spruce Mountain High School shoots over Mt. Blue defenders during Thursday’s game in Jay. 

Alex Bessey has her fair share of fans in the Spruce Mountain student section in Jay. 

JAY — It wasn’t her best game, her coach admitted, but Alex Bessey still scored 22 points.

Mt. Blue’s defense was physical and focused on slowing her, and she and her Spruce Mountain teammates were struggling — probably an understatement — to make shots, or even get decent looks. But Bessey still scored those 22 points in a 40-29 loss Thursday night.

The senior point guard had to settle for many long 3-pointers, but whenever she could, she drove toward the rim, and always absorbed some sort of contact.

“It doesn’t matter. As long as I get to the foul line, I don’t care,” Bessey said.

Most of the time, she didn’t get to the foul line. Borrowing a bit from football stats, Bessey was hit or knocked down 14 times. She attempted 12 free throws, making eight, and made only seven trips to the line.

But she kept attacking the hoop.

“The biggest thing that stands out to me is how competitive she is and how relentless she is. She doesn’t stop,” Spruce Mountain first-year coach Zach Keene said. “She’s fearless. She throws her body everywhere, and it’s constant. From the tip to the buzzer, she’s just coming at you. If you’re not ready for that, then that’s when she has big nights.”

Bessey said that she considers getting to the rim to be the strongest part of her game. And she views it as an import part of basketball. Keene calls Bessey a “basketball junkie,” but she doesn’t care much for the pro game.

“I don’t really watch NBA,” Bessey said. “I watch college, not NBA. A lot of it is just a 3-point competition; it’s not a lot of basketball.”

That being said, Bessey doesn’t eschew the trey. It just isn’t her preference. Along with her eight free throws and four two-point field goals, Bessey also drained a pair of 3s against Mt. Blue.

“She can do everything,” Keene said. “If you want to crowd her, she can go by; if you want to let her shoot it, she can shoot it; if you want to double-, triple-team her, she finds the open player; she’s a great defender. She’s just a really, really good all-around basketball player.”

But the best part of Bessey, Keene says, is her competitiveness.

“In practices, in games, whatever situation it is, she’s super, super competitive,” he said. “I think that’s her biggest strength.”

Keene chalks up Bessey’s basketball savvy and her competitiveness to the “Bessey blood.”

Bessey’s dad, Chris, was a basketball coach for the Spruce Mountain/Jay boys’ and girls’ programs for several years, including Alex’s sophomore and junior seasons, and he’s currently an assistant. Her uncle, Scott, coaches the Spruce Mountain boys.

Thursday’s loss to Mt. Blue further dimmed the Spruce Mountain girls’ postseason hopes. The Phoenix are 5-11 and two spots away from Class B South’s final berth.

“We’ve had some rough patches,” Alex Bessey said. “We knew we were the underdogs coming into the season, but we’ve been pretty good. We’ve been in a couple games that no one expected us to be in, in the first place.

“I love this group of girls,” Bessey added. “They’re fun to work with.”

Keene said that Bessey’s fire hasn’t been dimmed by the losses.

“She gets that there’s a process to winning,” Keene said. “She wants to win, but I think she loves the process of winning just as much. Showing up every day, preparing, practicing hard, understanding your opponents. All of that stuff, that’s how she leads us, by how hard she plays every day, game practice, whatever it may be.”

Bessey is averaging 22.6 points per game, 7.2 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 4.2 steals and one block this season. She’s racked up those number as the undisputed focal point of opponents’ game plans.

“For my money, she’s the best player I’ve seen all year,” Keene said. “I think a lot would agree with that.

“And there’s a lot of good players; that’s not a (disrespect) to any other player, it’s a testament to how good of a basketball player she is, because of how good she is at everything. She can do everything at a very high level. I think she sets the bar for players in the area.

“And I really don’t think that’s me being a biased coach, either. You could put her on any team and she would become the best player on that team, in my mind.”

Alex Bessey of Spruce Mountain High School reacts during Thursday’s game against Mt. Blue in Jay. 

Alex Bessey has her fair share of fans at Spruce Mountain High School in Jay.

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