Gold Nuggets add five more to recruiting class
July 1, 2010

     NEW ORLEANS — Xavier University of Louisiana announced Thursday the signing of five more prospects to women's basketball scholarships.
     Signed with the Gold Nuggets are 5-foot-10 forward Angelica Alexander of Shreveport, La., and Byrd High School, 5-6 guard Paige Gauthier of Lake Charles, La., and St. Louis Catholic High School, 6-foot center Keldra Hall of Dallas, Angelina College and Molina High School, 5-11 forward Carmen Holcombe of Plano, Texas, and Plano West High School, and 5-9 guard Dalila Robinson of College Park, Ga., and Westlake High School.
     Xavier will have eight scholarship newcomers, including seven freshmen, on its 2010-11 roster. Alexander, Gauthier, Holcombe and Robinson will be pre-medical majors at XU.
     Alexander was honorable-mention All-District 1-5A as a senior and helped Byrd's Lady Yellow Jackets reach the second round of the Class 5A state playoffs for the second consecutive season. This year she placed third in the high jump at the 5A outdoor state track and field meet, and she graduated with a cumulative 3.9 grade-point average.
     Gauthier earned Class 4A All-State honorable-mention as a senior after averaging 17.9 points, 6.8 rebounds, three assists and 4.1 steals per game. She helped the Lady Saints reach the Class 4A quarterfinals this year, the 3A championship game in 2009 and the 3A semifinals in 2008. She was a shot-putter for St. Louis teams which won 3A outdoor state championships in 2009 and 2008.
     Hall averaged 3.7 points and 4.5 rebounds per game as an Angelina sophomore and helped the Lady Roadrunners go 26-6 and set a school record for victories in a season. Hall was first-team all-district three times in high school. Her twin brother, Keldrick, is a wrestler at the University of Oklahoma.
     Holcombe was chosen District 8-5A Defensive Player of the Year as a senior and averaged 7.2 points and 6.3 rebounds for a Plano West team that was 25-11 overall and 10-0 in district. Both her parents played college basketball, and her father, Carven, is TCU's No. 3 all-time scorer and was the consensus Southwest Conference Player of the Year his senior season (1986-87).
     Robinson made a combined 120 3-pointers her junior and sophomore seasons at Westlake, including a school-record 61 as a sophomore. She averaged 13 points as a junior, and Score Prep Fulton selected her first-team All-Fulton County as a sophomore. Robinson helped the Lady Lions go 27-2 and reach the quarterfinals of the Class AAAAA state playoffs in 2008-09 and 23-5 as a semifinalist in AAAA in 2007-08. Her senior season ended in the second quarter of the opening game when she suffered an injury to her left knee.
     Robinson's teammate, 6-4 center Simone Johnson, also signed with Xavier this year.
     Xavier was 28-6 in 2009-10, won Gulf Coast Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament championships and qualfied for the NAIA Division I National Championship for the 14th time in 16 years. The Gold Nuggets led NAIA D-I in scoring defense.