When Alex Masaquel broke her leg at the end of her junior season at ‘Iolani, William & Mary was the only college to stick with her.

Five years later, with the best regular-season record in school history already in hand, the Tribe have an opportunity to play their way into the NCAA tournament.

Masaquel, the team’s leading rebounder and second-leading scorer, leads William & Mary as the No. 4 seed into the Colonial Athletic Association tournament that begins Thursday against No. 5 seed Delaware.

The Tribe, who won a single-season record 11 straight in nonconference play, ended the regular season last week with wins over No. 2 seed James Madison and No. 3 seed Drexel.

Masaquel, who is averaging 12.0 points and a career-high 7.9 rebounds as a senior, scored her 1,000th career point against Drexel and thinks the Tribe can pull off a three-day run to the title in Harrisonburg, Va.

“All of the teams in our conference seem to match up pretty well against each other,” said Masaquel, a 2013 ‘Iolani graduate. “We’re playing a lot like how we were playing in nonconference play.”

Masaquel, who at 5-foot-10 still manages to find success in the post, has started 88 games over the past three years for the Tribe.

She was a three-time Fab 15 selection in high school with the Raiders, finishing second in the voting as a senior, which was her comeback year.

Major setback

Masaquel broke her leg in two places as a junior in a game against Punahou and was out for nine months before she was cleared to play again.

She had surgery to put a titanium rod into her leg from her knee to her ankle on the same night she suffered the injury, which was also right at the key point of the recruiting process for high school basketball players.

She missed the pivotal summer before her senior year when student athletes compete on the mainland in front of college coaches and had most of her college options lined up at the time taken away after the injury — except for one.

“A lot of schools that were offering me were mainly on the West Coast, but once they found out I had broken my leg my junior year, when you don’t know how a player will come back from that, they said ‘sorry about that’ and that was it,” Masaquel said. “It was nice that William & Mary kept their offer.”

Scholarship offer

Masaquel honed her skills in the Kalakaua basketball clinic under coach Dennis Agena, who had ties to the William & Mary coaching staff at that time.

With a full-ride scholarship offer to play Division I basketball still available to her, she pounded on the opportunity to take it.

“They were offering me a scholarship to play basketball. Who could turn that down?” Masaquel said. “I had never been to the East Coast, but you can’t be afraid to take risks.”

It started out as a bit of a struggle. Not only was it a long way from home, but Masaquel found herself in an unfamiliar position as benchwarmer.

She appeared in only 12 games as a freshman, largely in garbage time at the end of blowouts, and was told she wasn’t ready to play at that level.

Masaquel came home to train in the summer after her freshman year and made it her sole purpose in life to crack her way into the starting lineup.

“I came home with the mission that I didn’t want to be a benchwarmer,” Masaquel said. “I did everything I could to get ready for the next season.”

Faster, stronger and more prepared for a Division I basketball season, Masaquel won the starting job before the start of her sophomore year and hasn’t given it up since.

Only 18 players in school history have scored 1,000 points in a career.

“It was a wild ride,” Masaquel said. “I remember my freshman year I was really discouraged not being able to play and would sit in my room and cry.

“Now we’ve kind of changed the culture of the program — to go from (eight) wins to 19 wins is crazy. (Senior night) I was emotional because I dedicated four years of my life to playing this game and practicing day in and day out in that gym to try to get better on the court. To get the support and standing ovation all the seniors got and to have my family there was definitely a special treat.”