Game for Lauren Hill inspires women’s hoops community

Lauren Hill’s dream of playing college basketball has become a rallying point for women’s basketball players, coaches, teams and fans like nothing before. 

In a sport that knows how to get behind a worthy cause — as evidenced by the WBCA’s Kay Yow breast cancer initiatives and this summer’s Ice Bucket Challenge — what this freshman has inspired has been astonishing.

Her battle with a rare form of childhood brain cancer prompted the NCAA to make an extraordinary allowance.

Hill will get her wish on Sunday when her team from tiny Mt. St. Joseph University in Cincinnati plays Hiram College in a season opener moved up two weeks to accommodate her race against time. 

But this contest between two Division III schools will be far more than a game. Hill, her parents, the school and many in the women’s basketball community are using the event to raise awareness, and funds, in the fight against Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG).

It’s a terminal illness that usually claims its victims before they reach the age of 10. Hill, who was 18 years old when she got the diagnosis last year as a high school senior, considers herself lucky she’s made it this far.

And that’s what’s been so touching about her story, and what she’s trying to accomplish with the time she has left. While many of us are mourning the fact that Hill may not make it through the end of the year, she’s been visiting afflicted children in hospitals who won’t get to know what she’s experienced.

On Sunday, her dying wish will be parlayed into a rousing demonstration of support for 1More4Lauren, among other designations. 

The game (2 p.m. ET) will be played before a packed house at Xavier’s Cintas Center, which sold out all 10,000+ tickets in a half-hour. Fox Sports Ohio and CSN Chicago will televise the game, with noted women’s basketball analyst Debbie Antonelli on the call. WNBA and former Delaware All-American Elena Delle Donne also will be in attendance. 

National media representatives have requested credentials. ESPN will air a segment on Hill Sunday night, reported by feature reporter Tom Rinaldi.

Women’s college teams have sent jerseys with bearing her No. 22, to be auctioned off in the fundraising effort. The father of a DIPG victim has been busy sorting out the jerseys, and believes Hill’s presence can make a difference after years of little progress combatting the disease. 

Proceeds will go to The Cure Starts Now, a charity Hill and her family selected that is devoted to finding a cure for DIPG. 

She’s also issued a layup challenge that has been taken up by pro women’s hoops royalty, including new San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Becky Hammon. 

And it’s no ordinary way to shoot a layup, as Hill and Dan Benjamin, her coach at Mt. St. Joseph, demonstrate.

NBA and men’s college teams, the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals and other sports teams and athletes beyond women’s hoops are getting involved. 

The U.S. Basketball Writers Association has already named her the recipient of its usual season-end women’s Most Courageous Award, named after Pat Summitt. Our own Mel Greenberg will be on hand Sunday to present the honor. 

Hill also has been named the recipient of the Wilma Rudolph Courage Award.

Word has been spreading like wildfire on social media, through the #1More4Lauren hashtag on Twitter and the Twitter accounts: @CureStartsNow and @layup4lauren.