CROTHERSVILLE

She had worked hard at practices with her teammates throughout the season.

She also had gone to all of the games.

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One thing, however, was missing: Laekon Colwell had not scored any points.

Before a game Feb. 5 at Brownstown Central Middle School, the bookkeeper for the Crothersville junior high girls basketball team told Brownstown coach Kourtney Settle that two girls — one of them being Colwell — had not scored all season and asked if she and coach Kaylee Bennett could help them out.

That night, everyone cheered when Colwell made a basket. One, however, just wasn’t enough for the 10-year-old that night. She wound up making another one.

When Colwell got near the basket, Settle and Bennett told their players to allow her to shoot until she made it.

Also, at one point in the game, Colwell had passed the ball to the teammate who hadn’t scored so she could make a layup.

A couple of weeks later, Colwell is still glowing about that memorable night.

“Whenever they told me I was playing with the A team, I just jumped up and down,” she said, smiling. “My head was pounding because I was so excited and I didn’t know what to do.”

Colwell is only a fifth-grader, but since Crothersville doesn’t have enough players for a fifth-grade team, she and a few of her classmates play on the junior high teams with sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders.

She said she appreciates the Brownstown coaches and players for what they did and also her teammates and coaches for helping her.

“It felt awesome because those were my first points,” she said. “Whenever I got in the locker room, I started crying, and whenever we got done and off the court, (a teammate) picked me up and carried me across the court.”

Her grandmother, Peggy Colwell, said she received a message from one of the Brownstown players telling Laekon to keep trying hard with basketball and she will only improve.

“It was awesome that you had that many people working together to make sure that everybody got to score,” Peggy said. “It was exciting and it was awesome because they were all together. They were just being good sports, and it showed that they cared about other people.”

Another reason the moment was special is because of what Laekon has overcome in life.

When she was 2, she was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma. That’s a type of sarcoma made up of cells that normally develop into skeletal (voluntary) muscles, which are muscles people control to move parts of their body, according to cancer.org.

Well before birth, cells called rhabdomyoblasts, which will eventually form skeletal muscles, begin to form. Those are the cells that can develop into rhabdomyosarcoma, according to the website.

Because this is a cancer of very early forms of muscle cells, it is much more common in children. It can start anywhere in the body, even in parts that don’t normally have skeletal muscle.

Near the eye is one of the common sites, and Laekon’s cancer affected her right eye.

Shortly after turning 2, she was sitting with her grandfather one day when he said it looked like her eye was sticking out.

The next morning, they took Laekon to a pediatrician in Columbus. She was then sent to see an eye doctor in Indianapolis and wound up staying to have tests run, including having a bone taken out of her right eye area and put back in.

“It was about a two-week process before they actually decided what it was,” Peggy said.

After Memorial Day in 2010, she started chemotherapy at Riley Hospital for Children. That lasted for about 35 weeks, and she was hospitalized every three weeks.

Laekon also had 28 rounds of radiation to her face.

“They did proton radiation, which is not the norm,” Peggy said. “Regular radiation, when you get it, it just destroys everything in the path. Proton, it doesn’t do anything until it gets to what it’s killing.”

On March 1, 2011, Laekon rang the bell at Riley to signify her last treatment.

“She was the best patient there ever was. She really was,” Peggy said. “She wasn’t afraid, and whatever they needed to do, they could do.”

For the first few years after ending treatment, Laekon had to go to Riley every three months for a checkup. Then it went to every six months, and she now just has to go once a year.

Along the way, she also had a cataract removed and had a lens implant.

Peggy said Laekon has experienced a lot of side effects from chemo and radiation.

“When she was little, you have your baby teeth, but your permanent teeth aren’t in their form, so it has affected them really bad,” Peggy said. “And sometimes, it affects the way that they learn or how well they learn different things, and we’re finding out about now.”

Through it all, though, Peggy said Laekon has maintained her positive spirit.

“She never meets a stranger,” Peggy said. “She’s always willing to help someone.”

Laekon said she’s fortunate to have had an opportunity to play basketball this year. She started playing the sport in biddy ball, but this was her first year playing for a school team.

“You just get to travel, and you get to meet new people and see how really good they are, so maybe learn stuff from them,” she said. “Our coaches push us, and so do our teammates.”

Laekon also is a cheerleader for the middle school boys basketball team.

On the night of the girls game at Brownstown, though, she had everyone cheering for her.

“Kaylee Bennett and I both were very happy to help,” Settle said. “We could both see how much Laekon loves the sport just while she was warming up, so when they asked, we wanted the same thing for her — to score.”

Settle said seeing Laekon make both baskets was heartwarming for her and Bennett.

“We both got tears in our eyes because she was just beaming once she had scored,” Settle said. “Our players were so happy for her. Before the eighth-grade game, I gave our players the background story on Laekon, and they all wanted the same thing for her, as well. They were very excited when she scored not only once but twice. And as coaches, Kaylee and I were so proud of our girls for being such good sports.”

The moment also was special for Laekon’s coaches, Todd Adair and James Caudill.

“I never really knew how much it meant to her until the bus ride home and she said she was on cloud nine,” Adair said. “That made my coaching career.”