It seems like every story of a basketball player achieving his or her dreams start in the same place: on a driveway with a hoop.
 
The story of Fairfield freshman Sam Lewis is no exception.
 
"Every night, we would go out there and I would either play 1-on-1 with my dad or my brother," Lewis said. "We would just play, and play, and play until it got dark and then we would shoot forever."
 
The winners of those matches, however, are depending on whom you ask.
 
"I would win most of the time," Sam said with a smile. "But my brother won't let me believe that."
 
No matter who won those 1-on-1 family battles, they became a nightly tradition, so much so that it became "weird if we didn't play," Sam said. It was during this family bonding where Lewis would develop her basketball skills, especially her shooting.
 
"There were so many things that my dad would teach me and then he would show me how to do it," Lewis said. "I would take a lot of reps and if my shot was off he would show me what to do instead. I kept trying to follow him and follow his lead."
 
Following her father's lead brought Sam to the hard wood and developed her love of basketball. Of course she tried other sports in high school. She dabbled in lacrosse, soccer, and even softball, but she would just sit and pick the grass when she was playing the outfield. She wanted a sport where you always had to be moving.
 
"In basketball there are a lot less people on the court," Lewis said. "I think you have to work harder to play, so I think it was that part of the sport. It was more intense because you had to work harder to earn your spot."
 
Lewis would earn a spot on the varsity team as a freshman at Howard High School in Maryland. However, being a first-year player, getting playing time wasn't easy to come by. And as with any shooter who is used to repetition, she struggled with finding her rhythm.
 
That changed her sophomore year when she started to earn more time on the court, and in turn find more success. Her breakout performance came in a game against Atholon when she would hit six 3-pointers in a half.
 
"I was like, 'I got this,'" she recollected. "I felt like, 'this is good.'"
 
Lewis would use her shooting prowess to accomplish many things during her high school career. She would win three Howard County championships with the Lions, and would lead the county with 71 3-pointers and an .816 free throw percentage.
 
But there was one record she kept trying to break. And it took her until her senior year. On December 27, in a game against Liberty, Lewis had nailed six 3-pointers with still plenty of the game to go. Now, Lewis had hit six before, a few of times in fact. But she hadn't reached that lucky number seven. Why was that number important?
 
That was her father's record.
 
"Me and my dad have always had this competitiveness with our shooting because I think I'm better and he think he's better," Lewis said. "My senior year I finally got seven in a game and in the film after I hit the seventh, you can see him put his hands up. He was like 'oh my gosh.'"
 
Although she surpassed her father's high school record with seven 3-pointers in a game, nothing really changed from those friendly games in the driveway.
 
"He still thinks he's better," Sam said with a smile.
 
There was another moment where Sam and her family saw all the hard work over the years had been worth it, and that was when Sam committed to playing basketball at Fairfield University.
 
"My dad was so happy he cried," Sam said with a laugh. "He was like you worked so hard for this, you deserve it.'"
 
Doesn't it seem that's how all the basketball stories end?