As Marist men’s basketball approached the midway point of the second half against Fairfield on Feb. 7, the Stags led by eight. Senior guard Elijah Lewis had just two points, an uncharacteristic showing for the Red Foxes’ second-leading scorer, who averaged 12 points in his final season.
The worst-case scenario appeared to be that the Red Foxes would lose to Fairfield and fall to 10-5 in MAAC play. Losses happen, and a loss here still left Marist in a very strong position to land a high seed in the approaching MAAC Tournament.
But one play can change everything.
“I was going up for a layup, and I usually do a right-left plant to go off two [feet],” Lewis said. “When I went on my right and planted with my left, my right knee went inward… I felt it, heard it.”
Lewis suffered a season-ending torn ACL—along with two small meniscus tears—with just under 14:30 to play against the Stags. The injury marked a sudden end to his collegiate career and left Marist without one of its best players in the most important games of the season.
When Lewis went down, he held his knee on the ground and had to be helped off the court without putting any weight on his right leg.
“I won’t ever forget that feeling in my life. I thought I was gonna throw up on the court.”
Elijah Lewis
The moments—and days—following the injury were surrounded by a now surprising sense of optimism. Initially, the on-site doctor and Marist’s staff believed Lewis had suffered just a sprain to his MCL that would require two or three weeks of recovery. In the bowels of Leo D. Mahoney Arena, while the Red Foxes played out what became the first of three consecutive losses, the doctor conducted a Lachman test to assess the strength of his ACL.
The verdict? No tear.
Lewis still had to go for an MRI after returning to Poughkeepsie; his sense of optimism remained because he could walk on his injured knee following the initial pain and shock of the injury on the court.
Prior to his MRI, Lewis had basically convinced himself that he did not tear his ACL. He read articles online about whether people can usually walk after a torn ACL; his reading said most people cannot, which made him feel pretty good while awaiting an official diagnosis.
His MRI took place within three days following the game, while the results came shortly thereafter. They painted a much darker picture, and Jeffrey Carter—Marist’s associate athletic director for student-athlete health and performance—informed Lewis of his official injury and his need for surgery.
“The moment it hit me the most was right after my surgery,” he said. “Like ‘dang, I really tore my ACL…’ I was shocked. I think I was just really down for a couple of days, just trying to process the whole thing.”
“When Eli went down, the team was deflated a little bit,” Marist head coach John Dunne said. “As a head coach, you’re supposed to have this next man up mentality, but I think I was even a little bit deflated, and so we had to kind of slap ourselves in the face to regroup.”
Lewis had his surgery on Feb. 18, 11 days after the injury occurred. The first two weeks were the most challenging while he had his knee locked in a brace to keep it still. He also had to keep weight off his leg to allow his meniscus to heal.
Lewis’ diagnosis and surgery did not mark just the end of his season, but also the end of his time playing at Marist and playing collegiate basketball in general. Despite the tough circumstances and the initial disappointment, he faced the situation with a sense of optimism and did not let negativity show through.
“I think I handled it pretty well, I’m very positive about it. I think everything happens for a reason. It happened, there’s nothing I can do about it now.”
Elijah Lewis
“Even though he was certainly down and I would hear from others that maybe he was down, I never really sensed it from him,” Dunne said. “I’m on the phone with his mom and we’re crying together because we’re both passionate, and then he’s over there saying, ‘I’m gonna be okay.’”
Lewis’ teammates, coaches, girlfriend and family all helped support him and his sense of optimism in the wake of his injury. He lives on campus with graduate student guard Rhyjon Blackwell and senior guard Martin Kawa, who helped drive him around to get to the gym and elsewhere.
Even with the difficulty—for both Lewis and the team—of watching from the sideline during the season’s stretch run, Lewis did not get overly caught up in those emotions or the fact that his collegiate playing days had suddenly ended. Instead, he found other ways to make a positive impact.
Despite being a veteran on the team, Lewis rarely showed his leadership in a particularly outgoing manner. He was rather calm and typically let some of the other veteran players do more of the vocal leadership. Without being able to play, that changed a little.
Since Marist had already played every team remaining on the schedule after Lewis’ injury, he felt familiar with his role against those teams and used that knowledge to help prepare his teammates for what to expect in those games.
“I wanted to feel like I was doing something,” Lewis said. “Even if it was just a little bit, I wanted to feel like I was actually trying to help a little bit.”
“He was like another coach for me,” Dunne said. “We would come out of timeouts and he’d be standing right there with the staff and I’d say, ‘What do you think?’ And he’d give his opinion.”
Despite being without Lewis, redshirt sophomore center Jason Schofield and sophomore center Tarik Watson, the Red Foxes competed admirably down the stretch. While they lost four of their final six regular-season games, including the game against Fairfield, they beat Quinnipiac in the MAAC Semifinal and came agonizingly close to knocking off top-seeded Merrimack in the Quarterfinal.
Nonetheless, there is a sense that Marist could have accomplished more if not for the injuries to three key players, especially Lewis, given his consistent offensive presence on a team that at times struggled to score consistently.
“Regardless of what happened, the guys balled out,” Lewis said. “But yeah, you always think about that, like ‘if nobody got hurt, could we have done something more?’ I think so, of course.”
For now, Lewis is focused on healing. He has spent lots of time rehabbing and doing physical therapy over the past seven weeks since his surgery. Obviously, playing basketball is not possible yet, aside from going to the gym and practicing form shooting to maintain his release.
He has also had time to reflect on his two years at Marist and the opportunity to play Division I basketball after spending the first two years of his career at Division II Adelphi.
“Actually being able to play DI, for me at least, it just made me feel really good about myself,” Lewis said.
There are checkpoints that he needs to pass throughout his recovery to move on to the next stage of training, and he does not expect to make a full return to regular basketball activities until about nine months post-op. But when he does, he wants to take his game to the professional level.
“I just want to play… I’m mainly open to anywhere, but if I had a dream place, I would want to play it would be Japan,” Lewis said.
Lewis’ dad played overseas for 17 years and is experienced in the process of doing so. Currently, Lewis is unsure of what that entire process will look like while he focuses on recovering. Once he heals up and the time comes to find opportunities, he will lean on his dad to help make it happen.
His time at Marist may be finished, and it did not end as he may have hoped. But behind his positive mindset and strong support system, Lewis does not think his playing days are done.
“[My] coaches said that I have a lot of basketball left in me.”
Edited by Ben Leeds and Cara Lacey
Graphic and pictures from Xavier Angel
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