CHICAGO - The outcome had been decided, Marissa Young's St. Xavier University women's basketball team facing an insurmountable deficit in the final minute of a Thanksgiving weekend tournament game in Tennessee.
Most high-performing college athletes would assess the situation, accept it and conserve their energy to fight another day.
Not Young. Her brain doesn't work that way.
It never has.
"I dove for a loose ball and hit the scorers table and my hand got rolled up underneath me," Young said. "I probably shouldn't have done it - we were down 12 with 35 seconds left - but I'm not the type of person who gives up."
At anything. Ever.
The result of that effort play was a broken hand and eight games on the bench for the Cougars' leading scorer and emotional sparkplug. It was the last thing veteran coach Bob Hallberg wanted to see his senior point guard do in that situation, but after four years, he's acutely aware that the former Monroe High School standout knows no other way.
"I coached men for 30 years and this is my 12th season coaching women, and I've never had anybody that plays as hard as she does," said Hallberg, who guided the Chicago State and Illinois-Chicago men's squads. "I've never had to say anything in four years to Marissa about coming to play hard. She never turns it off."
That unyielding drive was a major factor in helping the Monroe girls basketball team win the Division 2 state championship in 2006 and helped fuel a run of success that saw the Cheesemakers lose just eight games in four seasons.
If anything, Young has ratcheted it up at St. Xavier, a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Division I school in Chicago.
The 5-foot-7 dynamo was a strong contributor as a sophomore and a starter as a junior, when she led the team in scoring (17.5 ppg) and rebounding (5.6 rpg) in earning honorable mention status on the NAIA All-American Team.
As a senior, Young moved seamlessly into the go-to player role for the No. 14-ranked Cougars, her 17.2 points, 4 steals and 32.1 minutes played per game all highs for a team with considerably less experience than a year ago.
In late January, she surpassed the 1,000-point plateau - a milestone she missed by about 10 points at Monroe.
"That was a big accomplishment," Young said. "I didn't think after my first two years here that I'd ever get close. It's cool that it happened in college after I didn't get it in high school. It's proof that hard work pays off."
The daughter of Kris and Tim Young has been proving that from her earliest days. Tim Young likes to tell the story about finding a young Marissa coloring a picture.
"Her mother and I asked, 'What's that?" Tim Young said. "Marissa said, 'Oh, I'm going to be a doctor when I grow up."
Sure enough, Marissa Young has been accepted to medical school at both Kansas City University of Medicine and Michigan State University. She's waiting to hear from other schools, including Midwestern University in Chicago.
"We found the (drawing) when I graduated from high school and I had pediatrician spelled really badly," Marissa Young said. "I never wanted to be in the NBA or be Super Girl. I always wanted to be a doctor, and that hasn't wavered yet."
She certainly has the academic credentials.
On Feb. 20, Young was one of five players named to the first-team unit of the Capital One Academic All-American Women's Basketball Team that includes all NAIA, Canadian colleges and two-year schools. It recognizes the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances on the court and in the classroom, where Young has received just one 'B' at St. Xavier.
"It still haunts me a little bit," she said, perhaps only half joking.
"She exhibits a tremendous intensity in the classroom and on the basketball court, but if you sit in the office and have a chat with her she's one of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet," Hallberg said. "Most people would only see that intense side of her if they came to a basketball game or sat with her in the library."
Young's academic and athletic success is compelling enough, but it's not the whole story. She has excelled on the basketball court in spite of being born with Brown Syndrome, a rare disorder that limits the movement of her left eye.
"I don't have muscle movement in my left eye and no peripheral vision to my left," Young said. "People say, 'You can't see (well) out of one eye, how do you play (so well)?' I say, 'I don't know, I've never played being able to see that direction.' "
The condition doesn't affect her shooting - her depth perception is good - but it can make things a bit more difficult when it comes to her point guard duties and running the offense.
"I have to turn my head a lot more than the average person," she said. "But people can't play basketball because of injuries a lot worse than that. It's not something that's ever going to get in my way."
Said Hallberg: "I try sometimes to cover one eye and see what she has to deal with. It's amazing what she does when she's dealing with her (condition)."
Young finished with 21 points, six steals, five assists, four rebounds and hit two key free throws with 27 seconds on Feb. 17 as St. Xavier edged Indiana University-South Bend 68-64 to solidify the Cougars' hold on second place in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference.
That victory, which clinched the 12th straight 20-win season for St. Xavier, is one of the most recent examples of the many ways Young - who is certain to move up the ladder on this season's NAIA All-American Team - impacts games.
St. Xavier (21-8) wrapped up the regular season on Saturday with an 89-68 trouncing of Robert Morris and will open the CCAC tournament at home on Thursday looking to solidify a bid to the national tournament.
Young thinks the Cougars can make some noise at nationals, too. If they do, the player Hallberg likes to say is on the school's gym floor more than a broom is likely to be smack dab in the middle of their success.
The coach paid what Young considers the ultimate compliment shortly after she suffered the hand injury in November.
"When I broke my hand, coach was talking to the team and he said, 'We can replace Marissa's 16 points per game, but we can't replace her heart. I've never seen a player with her heart,' " Young said.
"I've never thought it was a big deal - that's just always how I've played. I'm not the fastest person or the most talented player, but I don't know how to not play 100 percent, I guess."
On the court, or off.
"I push myself at everything because I know what I can achieve," Young said. "I expect near perfection - that's always been my personality. I want to achieve goals I set for myself and I don't want to let anything get in the way of me achieving my goals."
Most high-performing college athletes would assess the situation, accept it and conserve their energy to fight another day.
Not Young. Her brain doesn't work that way.
It never has.
"I dove for a loose ball and hit the scorers table and my hand got rolled up underneath me," Young said. "I probably shouldn't have done it - we were down 12 with 35 seconds left - but I'm not the type of person who gives up."
At anything. Ever.
The result of that effort play was a broken hand and eight games on the bench for the Cougars' leading scorer and emotional sparkplug. It was the last thing veteran coach Bob Hallberg wanted to see his senior point guard do in that situation, but after four years, he's acutely aware that the former Monroe High School standout knows no other way.
"I coached men for 30 years and this is my 12th season coaching women, and I've never had anybody that plays as hard as she does," said Hallberg, who guided the Chicago State and Illinois-Chicago men's squads. "I've never had to say anything in four years to Marissa about coming to play hard. She never turns it off."
That unyielding drive was a major factor in helping the Monroe girls basketball team win the Division 2 state championship in 2006 and helped fuel a run of success that saw the Cheesemakers lose just eight games in four seasons.
If anything, Young has ratcheted it up at St. Xavier, a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Division I school in Chicago.
The 5-foot-7 dynamo was a strong contributor as a sophomore and a starter as a junior, when she led the team in scoring (17.5 ppg) and rebounding (5.6 rpg) in earning honorable mention status on the NAIA All-American Team.
As a senior, Young moved seamlessly into the go-to player role for the No. 14-ranked Cougars, her 17.2 points, 4 steals and 32.1 minutes played per game all highs for a team with considerably less experience than a year ago.
In late January, she surpassed the 1,000-point plateau - a milestone she missed by about 10 points at Monroe.
"That was a big accomplishment," Young said. "I didn't think after my first two years here that I'd ever get close. It's cool that it happened in college after I didn't get it in high school. It's proof that hard work pays off."
The daughter of Kris and Tim Young has been proving that from her earliest days. Tim Young likes to tell the story about finding a young Marissa coloring a picture.
"Her mother and I asked, 'What's that?" Tim Young said. "Marissa said, 'Oh, I'm going to be a doctor when I grow up."
Sure enough, Marissa Young has been accepted to medical school at both Kansas City University of Medicine and Michigan State University. She's waiting to hear from other schools, including Midwestern University in Chicago.
"We found the (drawing) when I graduated from high school and I had pediatrician spelled really badly," Marissa Young said. "I never wanted to be in the NBA or be Super Girl. I always wanted to be a doctor, and that hasn't wavered yet."
She certainly has the academic credentials.
On Feb. 20, Young was one of five players named to the first-team unit of the Capital One Academic All-American Women's Basketball Team that includes all NAIA, Canadian colleges and two-year schools. It recognizes the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances on the court and in the classroom, where Young has received just one 'B' at St. Xavier.
"It still haunts me a little bit," she said, perhaps only half joking.
"She exhibits a tremendous intensity in the classroom and on the basketball court, but if you sit in the office and have a chat with her she's one of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet," Hallberg said. "Most people would only see that intense side of her if they came to a basketball game or sat with her in the library."
Young's academic and athletic success is compelling enough, but it's not the whole story. She has excelled on the basketball court in spite of being born with Brown Syndrome, a rare disorder that limits the movement of her left eye.
"I don't have muscle movement in my left eye and no peripheral vision to my left," Young said. "People say, 'You can't see (well) out of one eye, how do you play (so well)?' I say, 'I don't know, I've never played being able to see that direction.' "
The condition doesn't affect her shooting - her depth perception is good - but it can make things a bit more difficult when it comes to her point guard duties and running the offense.
"I have to turn my head a lot more than the average person," she said. "But people can't play basketball because of injuries a lot worse than that. It's not something that's ever going to get in my way."
Said Hallberg: "I try sometimes to cover one eye and see what she has to deal with. It's amazing what she does when she's dealing with her (condition)."
Young finished with 21 points, six steals, five assists, four rebounds and hit two key free throws with 27 seconds on Feb. 17 as St. Xavier edged Indiana University-South Bend 68-64 to solidify the Cougars' hold on second place in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference.
That victory, which clinched the 12th straight 20-win season for St. Xavier, is one of the most recent examples of the many ways Young - who is certain to move up the ladder on this season's NAIA All-American Team - impacts games.
St. Xavier (21-8) wrapped up the regular season on Saturday with an 89-68 trouncing of Robert Morris and will open the CCAC tournament at home on Thursday looking to solidify a bid to the national tournament.
Young thinks the Cougars can make some noise at nationals, too. If they do, the player Hallberg likes to say is on the school's gym floor more than a broom is likely to be smack dab in the middle of their success.
The coach paid what Young considers the ultimate compliment shortly after she suffered the hand injury in November.
"When I broke my hand, coach was talking to the team and he said, 'We can replace Marissa's 16 points per game, but we can't replace her heart. I've never seen a player with her heart,' " Young said.
"I've never thought it was a big deal - that's just always how I've played. I'm not the fastest person or the most talented player, but I don't know how to not play 100 percent, I guess."
On the court, or off.
"I push myself at everything because I know what I can achieve," Young said. "I expect near perfection - that's always been my personality. I want to achieve goals I set for myself and I don't want to let anything get in the way of me achieving my goals."
