BEAVER FALLS — Alexa Lee was just honored to be in the game.

Little did the Mars High senior know, she was honored after it.

Lee scored 10 points to lead the Class AAA team at the Roundball Classic at Geneva College Saturday.

Her team lost, 67-66, to the Class AAAA team, but Lee was named the game's MVP.

Lee wasn't around to accept her award. She had to leave immediately after the game to tend to a family emergency.

“A friend of mine who was there called and said I was the MVP,” Lee said. “Oh my gosh, I couldn't believe it.”

The Roundball Classic is an all-star game pitting some of the best Western Pennsylvania graduating senior basketball players against each other. Class A all-star players are pitted against Class AA and Class AAA goes up against Quad-A in both boys and girls.

Eighteen all-state players — including Gatorade Pennsylvania Girls Player of the Year Madison Cable of Mt. Lebanon — were chosen to play in the Roundball Classic.

“It made me feel honored just to have the opportunity to play in the game,” Lee said. “Just to be invited to play made me proud.”

When she found out she was selected to play in the Roundball Classic, Lee said she thought back to her early days of basketball.

She recalled her days in middle school, struggling to even dribble, to grade school where shooting was a chore and to junior high and high school, where her skills were honed.

Lee was a standout for most of her career with the Planets. After playing sparingly as a freshman, Lee became a major cog in the offense, averaging 13 points a game during her junior and senior seasons.

She finished with 96 career 3-pointers.

The measure of her success went far beyond point totals, said Mars girls basketball coach Tony Howard.

“She came in as a freshman four years ago and we knew she would be a scorer,” Howard said. “She did that and more. She took on more and more responsibility.”

Lee nearly led the Class AAA team to a win Saturday.

Lee's 3-point play with 29 seconds remaining in the game cut the Quad-A team's lead to a point.

The Class AAA team trailed by as many as 11 points midway through the fourth quarter.

“She was on the triple-A team playing against Quad-A players,” Howard said of Lee, “but she was probably still the quickest girl on the floor.”

Lee credits most of her success to the amount of work she has put into her game.

“I can't even imagine how many hours I have spent on basketball,” Lee said. “I can't even begin to tell you how many one-handed shots from 5 or 6 feet away from the basket I have taken to get my form down.”

Lee will be spending many more hours in a gym.

The 5-foot-7 guard has committed to St. Vincent College in Latrobe.

Lee was recruited by several Division II schools, but opted for Division III St. Vincent mostly because of academics.

It didn't hurt that Mars native Jimmy Petruska is the women's basketball coach for the Bearcats, who are coming off a 24-5 season and a trip to the NCAA Tournament.

“When people were recruiting her, they were saying that they wanted to recruit someone with one outstanding skill,” Howard said. “Alexa has more than one.”

And she showed that at the Roundball Classic.

As Lee said: “It was a pretty good way to end my high school career.”