CLEVELAND, Tenn. - On Nov. 8, Beyuan Hendricks was warming up for his college basketball debut, Lee University's season opener against Palm Beach Atlantic in the Gulf South Conference-Sunshine State Conference Challenge in Carrollton, Georgia.
The former Baylor School standout looked up in the stands at the University of West Georgia's Coliseum and saw his parents, Bethel and Nakia Hendricks, among the crowd.
Parents at their son's game? No surprise.
However, a month prior to that date, Nakia was in the hospital being treated for a ruptured brain aneurysm. It's why Beyuan says of that day and his mother's presence, "It was exciting. I just thanked God."
Nakia, who works for the Tennessee Department of Children's Services in Chattanooga, had been having occasional headaches on the job. The pain became unbearable on Oct. 5, though, and despite needing to make T-shirt deliveries for a side business, Nakia listened to a co-worker who suggested she go to the hospital.
She barely made it to Parkridge Medical Center's parking lot before passing out; due to concerns she might be having a stroke, she was rushed to Erlanger. Her husband was thankful it wasn't worse.
"It was amazing that she was able to get to the hospital in the nick of time," Bethel said. "If it had been another five to 10 minutes, she would have crashed her car from work."
Nakia was hospitalized for three weeks: a week in intensive care, a week in a regular room and a week at Siskin for physical rehabilitation. She didn't remember what had happened and sometimes would wake up confused and attempting to pull out tubes.
Bethel - a Knoxville native who played two seasons of college basketball at Cleveland State and two at Alabama A&M - said he probably got "about two hours" of sleep a day while trying to make sure Nakia didn't hurt herself.
"I've always considered myself a strong person," he said, "but that right there took a toll."
Each day after class or practice at Lee, Beyuan would drive to Chattanooga to check on his mother and see how she was doing.
"I've just never seen my mom like that," he said. "She's always got a smile on her face that brightens my day. It was different for me; I can go to my mom for anything in life, and when she was going through that I didn't have anyone to call - I could call my dad, but it's different with your mom - and so to not have her during that time was hard."
That was in part because Beyuan was going through his own struggles as he acclimated to his first semester in college. A Tennessee Mr. Basketball finalist for Division II-AA as a Baylor senior, he averaged 18 points, five rebounds and four assists per game that 2018-19 season. He capped his prep career by helping lead the Red Raiders to back-to-back trips to the state tournament in Nashville, including a runner-up finish in 2018.
But college isn't high school, and Beyuan admitted the transition was rough. The 6-foot-4, 175-pound guard/forward leaned on family members, including his grandmother, while also leaning on his teammates and coaches, who aided in the process.
"For all freshmen, it's the hardest year of their college experience," Lee coach Bubba Smith said. "It's a really difficult transition outside of going through something with a family member or something that you've been through. I think for guys, when they're going through things, you remember quickly that these are human beings and they're going through a lot of things to where basketball is an avenue for them to be able to express themselves within the event and get things out.
"But Beyuan is a little more quiet, a little bit more reserved, and so you have to spend a lot more time with him to really, really understand what's going on. We were just there to let him talk and work through things, and he has a freshman class that is really close and has a really unique bond."
And that's why Nov. 8 was so special for the Hendricks family. Nakia has had some struggles since then, but she and Bethel never missed a home game this season and attended all but a handful of away games for the Flames, who finished the season with a 22-7 record and qualified for the NCAA Division II national tournament for the first time in program history.
Beyuan was one of several former Chattanooga-area high school standouts on the 2019-20 roster for the Flames, with Central graduate Ryan Montgomery, a senior, also in that group. Beyuan started the season slow, but he had eight double-figure scoring performances - he posted a season high of 19 points twice and had a game with 18 points and eight rebounds - and had per-game averages of 7.9 points (fourth on the team) and 22.1 minutes (sixth).
Although the season was cut short due to the coronavirus pandemic - both the Lee men's and women's teams had qualified for their national tournaments - Beyuan has three more years to make an impact for the Flames.
And just as they were for his freshman season, his parents will be there to see as much of it as they can. Considering what his mom has gone through, he's especially grateful for that chance.
"Thank God she's come a long way," Beyuan said. "It's been a blessing in disguise."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.