When the lights shined Feb. 17 inside Hilton Coliseum and the crowd started to filter in, Lexi Albrecht had no idea it was going to be the most memorable game of her life.

The ISU women’s basketball team was taking on Texas Tech in a Wednesday night showdown on Play 4Kay night, an annual pink game that raises awareness for cancer victims. It was already going to be a special night for Albrecht because her sister, Melissa Grossman, passed away last year in late December after a long battle with cancer.

In the pregame ceremonies, the team wore shirts with #FightLikeMel on the back, and Iowa State honored Melissa with an announcement before the national anthem. Albrecht thought that was all. She didn’t know how special the night would become.

Iowa State, in the middle of a rough stretch in the season, jumped to a large lead thanks to a 29-0 run in the first and second quarters. By the end of the third quarter, Iowa State essentially had the game in hand.

Before the fourth quarter, coach Bill Fennelly discussed the final 10 minutes with his team. Albrecht, a reserve guard, listened as Fennelly talked with his guard, Emily Durr, a little longer than the rest of the team. After the chat, he sent Durr on the court.

“Lex, go get her,” Fennelly said with a nonchalant tone.

Albrecht looked around the bench for anyone else Fennelly could’ve been talking to.

“Me?” she said.

Albrecht checked in at the beginning of the fourth quarter to a round of applause, but that wouldn’t compare to the thunderous applause that came later.

The team drew up plays to try and get Albrecht the ball. She took two shots early in the quarter, but they both bounced off the rim and out. Albrecht thought those two shots were in, and she wasn’t alone. Her mom, Sara, who was in the stands along family and friends, thought the same thing.

“Yes, they looked like they were in. They did,” Sara said. “But I knew that if she kept shooting, they would go in.”

She was right.

Sisterly bond

Lexi and her two sisters, Melissa and Abbey, were as close as a trio could be – but certainly not in age.

Melissa was 11 years older than Abbey and 13 years older than Lexi. Because of the age difference, Melissa would act as the “second mom,” as Sara says, for the two sisters.

Wherever Melissa went — Abbey and Lexi wanted to be there. Whatever song Melissa listened to — Abbey and Lexi sang it. They wanted to be just like her.

“She would take [Lexi and Abbey] everywhere because they all followed her everywhere,” Sara said. “They all wanted to be Melissa.”

Lexi and Abbey even enjoyed Melissa’s car. When they were younger, Melissa would coax her two sisters into washing her car so they could get their photos taken. Melissa would later make photography a profession, creating Melissa Marie Photography.

“We just have a bunch of photos of little girls on the car,” Sara said with a chuckle. “We’re just like, ‘Oh my gosh, Melissa.’”

That relationship didn’t dwindle as the trio started to get older. It grew stronger.

If Abbey and Lexi got into a fight, Lexi would text Melissa about it. But their conversations would often be deeper than that, talking about boys, school and life.

In May 2013, Lexi’s senior year at Carroll Kuemper High School in Carroll, Iowa, doctors discovered that Melissa had breast cancer. Melissa was just beginning her long battle, a battle that inspired Lexi to be more like her older sister.

“She was really guiding me,” Lexi said. “I looked up to her a lot.”

“They can’t kill me yet”

If there was anything Melissa wanted her family and friends to know, it was that she wasn’t ever going to give up.

Even in the face of the overwhelming odds cancer can bring, Melissa always kept her head up. She’d be in many doctors’ offices in her battle, but it was always with a smile on her face.

“She’d always say, ‘Oh, well, at least they can’t kill me yet,’” Lexi said.

Not too long after doctors discovered Melissa’s cancer in 2013, they found it had spread to her lymph nodes.

Melissa won that first bout with cancer, and was seemingly in the clear in August of 2013.

But in October of 2014, the cancer returned. Melissa found out the cancer was in her lungs and liver. In December of 2014, they found out it spread to her brain. But Melissa wasn’t deterred, and never complained about the hand she had been dealt.

“She never complained,” Lexi said. “She took everything head on. I don’t think that I’ve ever seen anyone have cancer, stage-four terminal cancer, and have the attitude that she did.”

Melissa went through a lot in her battle with cancer. She broke her back after a coughing fit, needed supplemental oxygen because of tumors in her lungs and underwent brain surgery to remove tumors, but she kept battling.

Melissa’s son, Myles, now 4 years old, was the main reason she wouldn’t give up.

“Yes, there were times where she would say, ‘Mom, I don’t know if I can live another year like that,’” Sara said. “But she would always look at Myles and she would say, ‘I’m going to be here.’”

Melissa also never stopped attending Lexi’s games. As an ISU grad herself and an avid Cyclone fan, Melissa went to as many of Lexi’s games that she could. Even when she was getting sicker, she still made the trip from Carroll to Ames, even if Lexi didn’t play too often.

But the cancer kept getting worse. Lexi started to make the trip to Carroll more frequently. During breaks, she would practice, drive home and come back the next day. 

December of 2015 seemed like any other month, Lexi said. Melissa had ceased taking chemotherapy treatments because her white blood cell counts were low. But when doctors found out the cancer was in Melissa’s bone marrow, the family decided to re-continue the chemotherapy.

Melissa became increasingly tired. Melissa attended Iowa State’s home game against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Dec. 13. A few days later, she went Christmas shopping with Sara.

She fought all the way to Christmas time, when her tiredness gave way to exhaustion. As Sara laid with Melissa on Christmas Eve night, she could tell there was something wrong. Melissa was breathing slow and deep, and had yellow-tinted eyes.

Melissa watched as Myles opened presents on Christmas morning, but the family knew it was time to bring her to the hospital.

Two days later, on Dec. 27, 2015, Melissa died. She was 35.

“It wasn’t her giving up,” Sara said. “It was the cancer taking over.”

The game

As Feb. 17, the pink game, drew closer, the family had a mixture of nerves and dread.

Deb Fennelly, Bill’s wife, always held an event before the pink game. This year, Melissa was supposed to speak at it. Melissa also wanted to talk in front of the Hilton Coliseum crowd about her battle.

#Play4Kay tonight in Hilton! #FightLikeMel pic.twitter.com/ziAKnJeLUO

— Iowa State Athletics (@CycloneATH) February 18, 2016

That’s what made the event tough for the Albrecht family.

“When I knew it was coming up, I looked to this game as a game of hope,” Sara said. “At the time, for it all to happen – the hope was gone.”

Lexi felt the same way. She said she felt a sense of dread because it wasn’t going to be easy playing when her sister was supposed to be in the stands cheering for her.

But they soon realized that Melissa would want them to fight through the pain and advocate on her behalf.

“Basketball is a great platform to promote her story and promote her life,” Lexi said. “And I knew they were going to do something really cool for her. She would want me to be really excited for her because that’s how she was.”

With that in mind, Lexi and Sara’s nerves turned to excitement. When Feb. 17 rolled around, Lexi could hardly contain it.

And, as Sara and Lexi would find out, that game became a celebration rather than a tough night of remembrance.

The shot

There were about three minutes left in the game against Texas Tech when Lexi hit the biggest shot of her career.

Lexi made a cut to the basket and went back up to the 3-point line, leading her defender into a hard Madison Baier screen. Lexi had a clear shot at the basket, and this time she wasn’t going to let it get away.

Durr dished out a quick pass and Lexi quickly released the ball from beyond the 3-point line. The ball fell through the net flawlessly, and the crowd reacted. Everybody was on their feet, but no one was more excited than Albrecht’s parents.

“It was so awesome,” Sara said. “I think, for Lexi, that was for Melissa.”

Here is the 3-pointer from Lexi Albrecht and a standing ovation from the Hilton crowd! https://t.co/GNzJgFg1JB

— Cyclone Basketball (@CycloneWBB) February 18, 2016

Lexi didn’t get another chance to score, and with less than a minute to go in the game, Fennelly took her out of the game. When the crowd rose to its feet and gave a roar of applause, Sara realized what Fennelly was doing.

“How classy of him to do that?” Sara said. “It was really awesome that he would do that. It was really sweet. I wanted to hug him. So many acts of kindness were done in that game.”

In the post-game press conference, Fennelly and the players hardly talked about the game, which the team won, 77-48. It was a much needed victory after the team’s struggles at the time, but there was a message much more powerful to be told. 

“Those three points that she made, that’s what we live for,” said senior Kidd Blaskowsky. “Basketball will end at some point, but what she’s been through and the fight that her family has fought and her sister has fought, those really don’t. You can’t take that for granted. We’re really proud of her. Those three points were definitely the most impacting points of the game.”

After the game, Myles bolted toward Lexi and embraced her in a hug. Lexi also heard that her parents cried when she made the shot.

At that moment, Lexi knew the shot wasn’t for her, but for her family and, most of all, Melissa. She also knew that it wouldn’t have mattered to Melissa, as long as Lexi was doing what she loved.

“She was just as proud of me sitting on the bench the whole third quarter than she was when I was playing,” Lexi said. “I can just picture her reaction in my mind. I’m sure she was cheering up in heaven for me.”