LEWISTON — When LA Maples coach Jim Seavey asked his players about adding Allexia Barros to their roster, the answer was a unanimous yes. 

Barros’ former team, the New England Trailblazers, disbanded due to a lack of players, and the versatile guard, on of the WABA’s top players, was looking for a new team. The Maples, in their first regular season game, soundly defeated the Trailblazers 83-39 earlier this month when New England had only five players, including a high schooler who was initially at the Lewiston Armory to support Barros.

“I had a conversation with the players after the game that this was a chance to pick her up when the Trailblazers were going to drop out of the league,” said Seavey, who also is the president of basketball for the Lewiston-Auburn-based semipro basketball team.

He added: “I said (to the team), ‘I want everybody’s approval. I want everyone to be honest and to communicate.’ And everybody was on board.”

Barros, who scored 21 of the Trailblazers 39 points in the July 10 matchup against the Maples, was excited to join the team and continue her basketball career. 

“Coach (Jim) came up to me and offered me a position. I wasn’t expecting it, but I was immediately in. All I want to do is play,” Barros said. “I’m very excited to play with this new team.” 

And the Maples, after seeing the 5-foot-8 Barros’ skills up close, were happy to add her to the team. 

“This team is very welcoming, too,” Barros said. “They didn’t have to let me in, but it feels good.” 

‘BASKETBALL JUNKIE’ 

Barros is in love with the game of basketball. 

“She’s as big a basketball junkie as there is,” Seavey said. 

“I just grew up playing basketball against the boys, and when I started playing with the girls, that’s when I really fell in love with the game,” Barros said. 

Barros, a New Bedford, Massachusetts native, has been playing for Cape Verde’s national team since high school, but she says that is only the beginning for her. 

“I’m just being patient and waiting for my time to come,” Barros said. “My dream is to play in the WNBA. I know I can hoop with those girls.” 

Barros, who is the niece of former Boston College star and Boston Celtics player Dana Barros, has had quite the basketball career thus far. 

She was a four-year varsity player at New Bedford High School and was named Boston Herald All-Scholastic during her senior season. 

She went on to play at Community College of Rhode Island for two years, where she broke the program’s single-game record for 3-pointers made in a game, hitting 11 treys in a game during the 2013-2014 season. 

Following that season, she played two years at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada. 

Last season, the 27-year-old Barros played for the Boston-based Trailblazers in their inaugural season, helping them to an unbeaten regular season after which they advanced to the WABA’s final four in Florida. She averaged 30 points per game, was an all-star team and won the league’s 3-point championship during its all-star weekend.

As Barros has gotten older, basketball has become increasingly important to her, as has her determination to play it for a living. 

“Now, it’s my life. It’s not even a game anymore,” Barros said. “This is my career that I’m focused on, and every day I’m just trying to get better.” 

Barros also has her own basketball brand — “The Underdogs” — that aims to empower young girls through the game of basketball. She begins training girls at the age of  4, and she has developed close bonds with many of her clients. 

“Watching them grow is an amazing feeling,” Barros said. “I love helping people fall in love with the game that I love.” 

NEW-LOOK MAPLES 

The addition of Barros should be a big benefit to the Maples.

The most obvious things Barros brings to Lewiston-Auburn are her scoring and shooting abilities. 

“She gives us another scorer,” Seavey said. “She can score from all three levels — she can get to the rim, she can play the mid-game and she’s a deadly three-point shooter.” 

Barros also can play a true point guard role, which is important to the Maples for multiple reasons. 

First, it allows Allie Goodman and Grace Fontaine, two strong shooters, to play off-ball more, which is where they’re best.

“Now that we have Lex, we can allow Allie, Grace and all of our shooters to really get to their spots,” Maples chairman and owner Joshua Brister said. 

“It’ll be cool because it’ll shift me into a different role, one that I’m more used to,” Goodman said. 

Barros is also excited to have more weapons to pass to, rather than needing to carry the scoring load as she did for the Trailblazers. 

“I can pass to so many people on this team,” Barros said. “I want to learn all their games. How they play, where they like to shoot, their go-to moves. That’s how I want to be able to better myself as a point guard.” 

“She feels relieved because she felt like she had to carry that Trailblazers team,” Seavey said, “but she doesn’t have to carry this team because we’ve got so many different weapons.” 

Another benefit of having Barros at point guard is that the special rules of the WABA — most notably the “3-D” rule that a backcourt turnover results in an extra point for the team that forces the turnover if they score on that possession — incentivize teams to full-court press, which heightens the importance of having a backcourt that can be calm and cool under pressure.

That should make pressing the first-year Maples much more difficult.

“The 3-D light will stay off now,” Brister said. “You need someone to help break the press, and she can do that.

“She makes it rock-solid at the point guard position.”

The Maples (1-0) are back in action Saturday when they face the Mount Vernon Shamrocks in New York. LA’s next home game is July 31, also against the Shamrocks, at the Lewiston Armory.

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