Damion Lee felt the pop in his knee as soon as he landed.
An Arizona defender had cut off Lee's baseline drive, so the 6-foot-6 Drexel guard worked back towards the free-throw line before attempting an ill-fated jump stop. Lee's knee buckled when he landed. He felt the pop. He heard it, too, that unmistakable, disgusting noise familiar to anyone who has suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
Lee received the diagnosis from a doctor around a week later. He had torn his ACL, ending his promising junior season. Reconstructive knee surgery was needed, and it would be close to a year before Lee would be cleared to play basketball without any restrictions.
"In the beginning, I was kind of in disbelief, 'How could this happen to me?'" recalled Lee, a Baltimore native and former Calvert Hall standout. "But then I realized that this is God's plan, and it's just something just to make me not take the game for granted. So ever since then, I've been working on my craft and keeping my body in great shape."
The injury happened Nov. 27, 2013, and his surgery was Dec. 12. A year later, Lee, who received a medical redshirt for last season, is back and producing at a level even higher than before he was injured.
One of the primary bright spots for an injury-riddled Drexel team that has a 2-7 record after an 80-70 loss to Buffalo on Tuesday, Lee is averaging 20.7 points, 5.7 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.8 steals per game.
"I was hoping he was going to come back and be the same Damion Lee that he was before he got hurt," Drexel coach James "Bruiser" Flint said of Lee, who was the Colonial Athletic Association Rookie of the Year in the 2011-12 season and averaged a team-best 17.1 points per game as a sophomore. "And actually it's been that way. I know he worked really hard in his rehab. … I think he's even better than I thought he would be."
Lee was cleared to begin shooting in June, was cleared to practice without restrictions in September and has progressively returned to form this season.
After scoring 44 total points in Drexel's first three games while shooting just 31.6 percent from the field, Lee has averaged 23.7 points in the six games since while making 46.5 percent of his shots (46 of 99) and 46.5 percent of his 3-point attempts (20 of 43).
When the Dragons fell to USC, 72-70, on Nov. 21, Lee was 10 of 16 from the field, 8 of 11 on 3-pointers and finished with 32 points. He followed that with 28 points in leading Drexel to a 61-59 win over Cornell.
"Teams are actually playing Damion box-and-one [a defense focused primarily on one player]," Flint said. "That's how tough it is for us. They know that we're down some guys, and he's really the only guy that scores the ball. You rarely see it in college basketball, but he's seen it a couple times in only a seven-game stretch. But if he keeps playing at this level and we get the guys back who are injured, then I think we have a chance to be pretty decent."
A preseason first-team All-CAA selection last year before he was injured, Lee eclipsed 1,000 career points earlier this season. He entered this year 14th in Drexel history with 131 career made 3-pointers and helped the Dragons post a 29-7 record in 2011-12.
"Of course, I wouldn't mind a couple more wins here this year," said Lee, a Baltimore Sun All-Metro second-team selection as a senior at Calvert Hall in 2009-10 who signed with Drexel after a year at St. Thomas More, a prep school in Connecticut. "But from a personal standpoint, I'm happy with how I've played.
"I'm not content, but I'm definitely happy that I've rebounded well off the injury, and that just comes from the confidence from all the work that I've put in these past 12 months since surgery just working myself to get ready for this year."