Minutes before her first game back from a knee injury, forward Jasmine Weatherspoon was missing.
Weatherspoon didn’t warm up with her team, and she didn’t stand with them during the national anthem. She was on her way back from Columbus, where she had just finished taking the Law School Admission Test.
When she finally got to The Convo, she ended up spending almost as much time on the exercise bike as she did on the floor in the 61-55 Ohio win.
After committing one foul in the first quarter, Weatherspoon picked up her second and third within two minutes of entering the game in the second quarter.
She committed her fourth less than two minutes after entering the game in the third, and fouled out on an illegal screen call with 4:30 remaining in the fourth quarter.
“I’m not surprised she fouled out,” coach Bob Boldon said. “She was out of position most of the night.”
When Weatherspoon was on the floor, she struggled to make an impact. Weatherspoon was on the floor during the 7-0 run that helped seal Ohio's win in the fourth, but she didn’t record a single point, rebound or assist in that stretch. The fifth-leading rebounder in the Mid-American Conference and second-leading scorer on Ohio's team finished with two rebounds and zero points.
There were flashes of the Weatherspoon most are used to seeing at The Convo. With 3:24 remaining in the first quarter, she skied above everyone on the floor for her first rebound since returning. With 5:10 remaining in the third, she grabbed her first offensive rebound, but couldn’t finish the easy putback like she had countless times before.
When she was on the floor moments like those were repetitive — reminding the Bobcats of what they had been missing, but also showing the rust she had accrued during her absence.
Because of her inability to play like she had all season, the usually jovial Weatherspoon was the exact opposite Saturday afternoon. Her typical smiles while sitting on the bench were replaced with dejected walks to the stationary bike — never being able to stay on the floor long enough to feel comfortable.
“(Foul trouble) just takes you out mentally,” guard Yamonie Jenkins said. “You don’t wanna foul and you can’t be as aggressive as you’d normally play.”
Weatherspoon’s return Saturday wasn’t what she hoped it would be, but no one on the team was surprised. Her first game experience in nine days went as expected: messy and a little laggy compared to the players who had been playing while she worked to get back.
But as badly as Weatherspoon wants to get back to normal, only the passage of time will bring her closer to that goal.
“It just takes some reps to get back into it,” Boldon said.
