Jan. 28, 2010
Vanderbilt junior point guard Jence Rhoads likes the ball in her hands, so it’s hard to keep her off the court. Not even a broken bone could keep her sidelined long.
The best medicine for her turned out to be playing.
Rhoads returned to action for Vanderbilt after missing just two games with a broken bone in her left hand and immediately led the team to a 61-60 road win at Auburn on Jan. 21. She followed it up with a career-high 20-point effort, albeit in a loss to Mississippi State on Jan. 24.
“I hate sitting out,” Rhoads said. “It was awful, pretty much torture.”
In comparison to being a spectator, a fracture wasn’t too bad.
Being right-handed helped too, and she said she has not had to change her style of shooting.
After Rhoads suffered the injury during the second half of the Kentucky game – a game in which she played the full 40 minutes – it was originally feared she might miss a month or more. But a favorable medical report just a week later gave her the go-ahead to play.
“The doctor … was pretty happy with the progression of healing. He didn’t think anything I did was going to hurt it any worse,” Rhoads said. “I just had to be able to play through the pain. I can feel it when it gets hit or whatnot, but it’s been feeling a little bit better. It’s been sore, but I try not to think about it.”
With Vanderbilt in the midst of Southeastern Conference play, Rhoads wanted to get back on the court as quickly as possible. The Commodores defeated then-undefeated Georgia 66-44 on Jan. 14 before falling at then-No. 4 Tennessee three days later with Rhoads watching from the bench.
With Rhoads out, senior Merideth Marsh moved over to point guard. Although she scored 23 points against the Lady Volunteers, the Commodores struggled with 27 turnovers overall without Rhoads running things on offense in a close loss, 64-57. With Rhoads’ return, Marsh switched back to her normal position at shooting guard.
“My team stepped up for me and was able to get a big win (over Georgia) and have a good game against Tennessee, but obviously I still wanted to play,” Rhoads said.
Despite missing two starts, Rhoads leads Vanderbilt with 102 made field goals and is shooting 49 percent from the field, an exceptional average for a guard. She is second on the team behind Marsh with an average of 13.2 points and leads the Commodores with nearly 6 assists per contest.
However, since a 7-0 start to the season, the Commodores have gone just 7-6 and lost five of their last eight games. They were 6-1 at this point in SEC play a year ago, but now they stand at 3-4.
They have a chance to move back to .500 in conference play with a win on Thursday when they host Alabama, a team they have never lost to in Nashville and have won 12 of 13 against overall.
“People just have to accept their roles, play a little bit tougher and have a little bit more sense of urgency,” Rhoads said. “We need to step up and get a few wins.”
