Women’s hoops community rallies around Lauren Hill

Elena Delle Donne had chills when she first heard about Lauren Hill.

The WNBA star was brought to tears when she read about the freshman at Division III Mount St. Joseph University who has inoperable brain cancer.

Delle Donne will attend Hill’s game on Sunday as a fan, moving a speaking engagement to make sure she could be there.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing for her and I want to be there to support her,” Delle Donne said.

“She had that much passion for the sport to get one more game in there. It’s so amazing to see as an athlete her love of basketball. To see what she’s doing to play that game is really miraculous and so incredible.”

She isn’t the only WNBA player who will be at the game. The Indiana Fever will have a contingent at Xavier on Sunday among the 10,000 people expected to attend the game. The Fever honored Hill, who is from Indiana, earlier this month at a Pacers preseason game.

Delle Donne wants to do more. She reached out to her agent Lindsay Kagawa Colas to see what they could do for Hill.

A few hours later, Colas was talking with Kristin Bernert, who is the senior vice president of business operations for the New York Liberty. Bernert had read about Hill and was also deeply moved by her story. So the two thought of ideas of what they could do to help.

They came up with a website: www.1more4lauren.com.

It serves as a chance for people to learn about Hill and offer their support. There are Facebook, Instagram and Twitter posts from athletes across the sporting world, including Maya Moore, Becky Hammon, Mia Hamm, Richard Sherman and Kyle Singler.