College Basketball Player Fulfills Longtime Dream

Lauren Hill fulfilled a longtime dream on Sunday, and stated afterwards that this is something she will never forget. The crowd of 10,250 attending Sunday’s event will never forget it either.

Lauren is a freshman at Mount St. Joseph’s and is a member of the women’s basketball team. She also has an inoperable brain tumor that has left her just months to live. Hill’s condition has made her extremely sensitive to light and noise.

Hill’s dream was to play at least one game for Mount St. Joseph’s. College administration worked out a deal for Mount St. Mary’s to move their game with Hiram College up two weeks (with approval from the NCAA), just so Hill would have a chance to play before she became too ill to do so.

When Hill’s story first made national headlines, it immediately went viral. And by the time the game tipped off, more than 10,000 fans had flooded the stands at Xavier University just to see Hill play.

Hill scored the very first points just 17 seconds into the game. She scored the points with a left-handed lay-up. Hill also scored the last points of the game with a right-handed lay-up, making the final score 66-55 in favor of Mount St. Joseph’s.

Over the past few weeks, the game – as well as the #1More4Lauren and #Layup4Lauren hashtags and fundraising campaigns – have caught the attention of college and professional athletes. Among the many celebrities in attendance Sunday were Fred Jackson of the Buffalo Bills, legendary Tennessee coach Pat Summitt, and WNBA standouts Elena Delle Donne, Skylar Diggins and Tamika Catchings.

During halftime, Summitt presented Hill with the U.S. Basketball Writers Association’s Pat Summit Most Courageous Award.

At the end of the game, the team announced that $40,000 had been raised for TCSN, which raises money to fund research for diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, which is the rare type of pediatric brain cancer that Hill is suffering.

Hill made this comment to ESPN:

To reach and touch this many people is amazing. Not many people knew about DIPG before me, and now that they do, we can get research going to cure this cancer. I won't be around to see that, but it's going to help so many people. That's why the support can't end with this game.