BILLINGS — Maddie Albrecht always believed she belonged.
That’s not to say doubt didn’t seep into her mind occasionally. Coming off the Lehigh University bench for her first three college seasons, averaging no better than 10.6 minutes and 1.8 points per game in any of those campaigns, was a far cry from what she was used to.
Albrecht was a three-year starter at Billings West, a two-time all-state player to boot, and was part of a co-state championship team during the 2020 COVID winter. Albrecht and her twin sister, Willa, who currently plays at Carroll College after first joining the University of Montana, were defensive terrors, using their 6-foot frames and quick-twitch powers to bait opponents into turnovers and easy points for themselves and their teammates.
So, yes, doubting if she had a place, if she would ever be a contributing piece, for the Mountain Hawks’ program in the Patriot League crossed Albrecht’s mind once or twice during those first three seasons at Lehigh.
“I would say there were times when my confidence wavered a little bit just because I felt like I was a good player,” she said. “Maybe I wasn't getting the minutes or the production that I wanted necessarily, but I think I also knew there were people ahead of me and with time these people would graduate, and my time would eventually come.”
When Albrecht’s time came, she took advantage.
Now a fifth-year senior — Albrecht is among the 2020-21 class of athletes granted an extra season because of COVID — she leads Lehigh in scoring (15.1 ppg, which is fourth in the Patriot League) and rebounding (5.2 rpg).
She has scored double digits in 14 of Lehigh’s 16 games, helping the Mountain Hawks to an 13-4 record overall, 4-1 in the Patriot League, and her .523 shooting percentage leads the league. She has made 57 of 67 free-throw attempts, an .851 percentage that is third in the league.
Last season was considered her breakout year. Once she became a full-time starter almost a year ago against Navy, Albrecht closed the season averaging 12.5 points over the team’s final 15 games. Included in that were a 27-point game against Colgate and a 28-point showing against Army.
The transformation began earlier, following her junior year. With several Lehigh starters graduating, minutes and points were up for grabs the next season.
“I knew there was going to be a role for me to step into if I worked hard enough and if I had the confidence to step into it,” she said.
Over the spring and summer going into her senior year, Albrecht spent a lot of time working on her one-on-one game, thinking that would be a strength of hers. She worked out with her teammates and coaches, and spent individual time putting up shots with a shot machine. She and Willa worked out together when they were home in Billings.
By the time the 2023-24 season rolled around, Albrecht was slated to be in the starting lineup. But she injured an ankle just before the start of the schedule, and when she returned to full health there was little desire to disrupt the chemistry the team had built as the Mountain Hawks had gotten off to a good start.
As the season progressed and injury and illness cropped up among her teammates, Albrecht was given her chance. She scored 11 points in a spot-start against Rider on Dec. 30, 2023. She came off the bench in Lehigh’s next four games before netting 18 points on 7-for-14 shooting in a start against Navy.
She’s been starting ever since.
“My coaches and teammates who worked out with me deserve a lot of the credit,” Albrecht said. “They made it easy for me to have a lot of confidence in myself.”
Albrecht graduated with a biology degree last spring. Her desire is to become a physician’s assistant, but Lehigh had no master’s programs that she was interested in. Early in the season, Albrecht told head coach Addie Micir that she was going to enter the transfer portal to see if she could find a fit at a new school that could satisfy both her graduate pursuits and her desire to play her final season of basketball.
A better opportunity wasn’t out there. Albrecht elected to stay at Lehigh and is enrolled in pre-requisite classes that she couldn’t complete during her undergraduate stint. After this school year, she wants to get closer to home to conclude her graduate work.
For now, the goal is to win a Patriot League championship and earn an NCAA Tournament berth for the second time. The Mountain Hawks did just that in Albrecht’s first season in 2020-21, and she was able to log a minute of playing time in Lehigh’s first-round loss to West Virginia in San Antonio.
Lehigh, situated in Bethlehem, Pa., and surrounded by Philadelphia and New York City, is a long way from Billings, culturally as well as in distance. In the end, it turned out Lehigh was the perfect fit Albrecht always thought it would be.
“Obviously, it’s a great academic school, so I always thought getting a degree from here would at least be worth it,” Albrecht said. “I also do just really like the community here. I really love my teammates. So, I think all of those factored into my decision to go here originally. And then once I got here, even if it was easy for me to say basketball wasn’t necessarily working out for me, other things were enough to keep me here.”
Albrecht has scored 54 points in her past three games, including back-to-back contributions of 21 and 24 points against Colgate and Army, respectively.
"Maddie makes it look easy, which is wild because she has such tough finishes, but she came back this year as a fifth-year and wanted to be challenged and stretched in a lot of ways, and not in a selfish way," Micir, the Lehigh coach, said following Albrecht’s 24-point performance in a 90-51 win over previous league unbeaten Army.
"Most importantly, she wants to win. To watch her be this unselfish and aggressive at the same time is awesome."
All it took was some patience and perseverance to re-enforce the decision Albrecht made in high school.
