MIDWEST LIVE: Lee, Little Giants take advantage of last-minute invite

PERKINS TWP. — There hadn't been any plans for Makai Lee and his Fremont Ross teammates to play a basketball game on Friday. But after being added on the eve of Midwest Live, Lee put on a show in a thrilling Little Giants win. "We've been wanting to get in this," the rising senior Lee said. "It's really cool. It's a way to get exposure, and playing against good teams just makes you better." The Little Giants overcame a bunch of small deficits to win in overtime, 47-46, over Chesapeake, a school from southern Ohio. Lee dropped 30 points, including the game-winning floater with five seconds to play in the extra period. "It's a great opportunity with all the eyes here," Fremont coach John Cahill said. "Even if you're not a featured game, there's still a ton of traffic. We have a lot of seniors, some underclassmen, and it's an honor to be here." At the end of a key month for Ross, a team with all but one rotation player back, it was Cahill's connections that led to some extra hoops. Cahill lined up all the scorekeepers for Midwest Live, and so he was in the loop from the beginning when Dearborn (Mich.) notified the event that it couldn't make the trip. On Thursday night, Cahill said yes to a 1 p.m. Friday game and two more on Saturday. There wasn't time to get full uniforms from the school, so he handed out practice jerseys to his players upon their arrival. "I just sent a text out for anybody who could come to come," Cahill said. "They played hard, and it was fun." The Little Giants matched up with Chesapeake, another team in purple, which will play in Division V this winter. The game was rarely separated by more than a possession. Lee opened his scoring with an and-1 and never really slowed down. He drilled three 3-pointers — his final two first-half buckets and his opening second-half hoop. Other than that, he drove to the hoop relentlessly. "He attacked the basket," Cahill said. "He needed to look to be aggressive offensively, and he did. He got to the line. He did a lot of really good things." Ross found itself down three points in the final minute of regulation before Dekentre Hardin banked in a 3-pointer to tie the game, 41-41. At the other end, Hardin drew a charge to keep the score knotted and force a one-minute overtime period. Chesapeake scored first in OT, then Lee tied it with two foul shots. He followed with a drive to go up 45-43. The Panthers drained a 3 to go up one with 10 seconds left, but Ross inbounded the ball quickly to Lee, who went the length of the floor and lofted up a tough-angle floater from the right baseline that dropped through for the win. "It's just being confident," Lee said. "Don't worry about my mistakes, just keep on playing." Lee and Hardin are two senior leaders among a veteran group for Cahill, along with classmates like Dontrell Heard, Michael Stover and Dakiyus Webb, who all played key roles Friday. The Little Giants are coming off a tough 5-18 season in which the highlight may have been a crazy comeback to beat Perkins with a late-game 18-2 run. With most of their contributors back, Ross is hoping for a lot more winning. "It definitely helps the team to have all that chemistry with the same people," Lee said. The opportunity Friday and Saturday will be a big start toward that for Ross. Playing top-notch competition this time of year will only make it a more comfortable situation matching up with strong players when the season rolls around. "This is the coolest event in high school basketball," Cahill said. "It makes me feel good that we have opportunities for kids with their high school team locally with all these college coaches here… This event, with your high school team, it's a who's who east of the Mississippi. It's an incredible event."