After losing three straight and four of the last five games, the women’s basketball team found itself with a much-needed off day on Saturday.

Head Coach Julie Goodenough said the day would be used for rest and recovery.

“We’re gonna take two days off,” she said. “Hopefully, that extra recovery will be really good for our players.”

Several players are out with injuries, and a few, like Zoe Jackson, senior guard from McKinney, are just returning from injury.

Jackson missed 14 games before returning to action on Dec. 30 against Nelson University and has had higher minutes than anticipated because of other injuries on the team.

She said the mental challenges of returning have been greater than she anticipated, but others on the team have helped her greatly. 

“It’s been good finally being back,” Jackson said. “There is still some hesitation, but being fully going again is very, very exciting. My teammates were happy that I came back. I definitely had to take a step back and look in the mirror and say, ‘You’re not that player anymore because of injury, but you’re still a good player overall.’” 

With so many injuries on the team, the coaching staff has had to be more conscious of how much time each athlete spends on the court. 

“Playing a little shorthanded, I have to do a better job of managing players and minutes,” Goodenough said. “I thought in both games we just ran out of gas in the fourth quarter, and that’s on me trying to figure out how to give people breaks in the first half so that we can finish the fourth quarter.”

Jackson said she is having to find a new role for herself on the court because she has not always been the highest-scoring threat.

“I don’t score a lot, it’s just not my specialty, but like if I need to, I will,” she said. “So facilitating is my whole entire game, getting the ball where it needs to go, running the correct plays, direct reads, correct reads.”

Jackson also knows that being an annoyance off the court is important too. 

“Obviously, I was injured, so I was trying to overdo it, and it just became natural, just always being engaged,” Jackson said. “Counting the shot clock, and doing what we do on defense, calling out fire when it gets under 10 seconds in the shot clock, and it just kind of stuck.”