Tucson High's Cortez accepts scholarship
Tucson High junior basketball standout Alexis Cortez last week accepted a scholarship offer to East Carolina. Cortez, a 5-foot-11-inch forward, averaged 25.2 points last season, with a high game of 40 against Notre Dame Prep. It has been a long process to get a college scholarship. She actually began playing at 5, in the day care center at the Downtown YMCA. She made a boys club team at 8, the Tucson Flash, and didn’t begin playing with a girls club team until 12. Her mother, Juanita Cortez, remembers Alexis telling her she wanted to be a college basketball player as early as the first grade. After visiting East Carolina last month, Cortez got her wish. The Pirates, who scouted Alexis in a California summer tournament last year, won 22 games this season.
