During those solitary days in quarantine, Melaina DeZort took to the makeshift court in her driveway, basketball in hand, to get in some work.

The Freeport sophomore would spend hours taking shot after shot, draining more than she missed.

She'd get help from her brother, Mitchell, who didn't allow her to let up.

DeZort honed her other skills, too.

Her dribble drive.

Her pull-up jumper.

Her step-back.

Even on the days when she didn't want to do any of them.

“Some days, as I'm sure every athlete does, I don't want to work out. I don't want to practice,” DeZort said. “But those are the biggest days for improvement. Those are the days when you get better. That's what sets you apart.”

So DeZort committed to the grind during the shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

When she was finally able to get back out onto a real court with her SLAAM Basketball AAU team, she saw a marked improvement in her game.

It's added up to some big things in a truncated summer of hoops.

DeZort was a key cog of the SLAAM 15-and-under team coached by Jamal Woodson that went 6-0 and won the Hoosier Heat Tournament in Indianapolis over the weekend.

Every game was close and DeZort made big plays in all six games.

“I was just super excited to finally play,” said DeZort, who had only played in two other smaller tournaments before the big one in Indy. “I've been training so much that I couldn't wait to show everything on the court.”

That was the mindset of just about every AAU player in Indianapolis this weekend.

DeZort noticed the intensity right away.

The games were streamed so college coaches could watch from their corners of the country.

“It was very physical and intense,” DeZort said. “A lot of girls were trying to show off a lot of their skills.”

DeZort did, too. But she had a bigger picture in mind.

She wanted to win the thing. So did her teammates, which included Knoch sophomore Nina Shaw, who missed the tournament because of an ankle injury.

DeZort also wanted to just enjoy playing.

“I've been able to just be grateful every time I get to play because it could be the last game,” DeZort said of the uncertainty of COVID-19 restrictions. “I think that's why we all went so hard in Indianapolis because we don't know if that's going to be our last games or not.”

That uneasiness has been difficult on DeZort, who averaged 8.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and hit 28 3-pointers as a freshman at Freeport in the winter.

Everywhere around her in Indianapolis was a reminder of the coronavirus.

DeZort sometimes had her temperature checked five times in one day. She couldn't watch other games because the gym was closed to only the teams playing and she and her teammates wore masks everywhere they went.

It's the new normal.

And just a price DeZort has to pay to keep playing the sport she has loved since she was a toddler.

She grew up watching Mitchell play, rebounding for him when he would shoot into the night in the driveway.

DeZort tried other sports, but nothing commanded her attention and passion like basketball.

“I have to hand it to my brother,” DeZort said. “He just really gave me the inspiration to fall in love with the game.”

Her father, Michael, played football at Penn Hills and then went on to star at West Liberty. Her mother, Melonie, did her achieving in the classroom.

Melaina DeZort has combined the two as a standout on the court and a whiz in the classroom with a 4.3 GPA.

“She's a great student,” Michael DeZort said. “That always comes first.”

DeZort is shooting for nothing short of greatness.

“My goal ever since I was little is to play at the highest level in college, to play at the Division I level,” she said. “That's why I've tried to surround myself with the best coaches and to work so hard.”