It was 4 p.m. on a Tuesday afternoon at the Walter Pyramid when a tall, slender blonde walked out of the locker room and made her way to the sidelines.
The Long Beach State women’s basketball team had been released from a three-hour practice and Courtney Jacob’s head was held high as her smile glistened from beneath the lights that hang from the rafters.
The 5-foot-11 senior has every reason to be in good spirits these days — and so do her teammates and coaching staff for that matter.
Things are beginning to look up for the sixth-place 49ers, whose torrid 1-6 start to Big West Conference play had critics doubting their chances of contending for the conference tournament title in March.
A new role
That is until Jacob settled into her Scottie Pippen-like point forward role, where her talents as a scorer and distributor have propelled the surging ‘Niners to five conference victories in their last eight games.
“It took me awhile to learn how to be a point guard and a scorer at the same time,” said Jacob, who missed the first four games of the regular season due to injury. “After I got a few more reps in practice and a few more games under my belt, I knew that I could still distribute the ball, while being able to put it in the basket.”
But scoring and dishing out assists as her team’s floor general aren’t the only facets that define Jacob’s all-around play.
Filling the box score
She has led LBSU in every major statistical category this season, including points (14.4), field goal percentage (.464), rebounds (6.9), assists (3.7), and steals (1.8).
Jacob also ranks among the top 6 among all players in the Big West in each of those five categories, making a strong case for an all-conference first-team selection.
The senior captain received Big West Player of the Week honors on back-to-back weeks in January — the only Big West player to do so — and hit the game-winning free throws in victories over UC Irvine and UC Davis.
But her value to the team isn’t merely defined by her effectiveness on the court, but also by the example she has set as a leader.
“She did a fantastic job of taking care of our freshmen this past summer and getting them acclimated to what college life is like and how practices are gonna go,” 49ers head coach Jody Wynn said. “She’s done a really good job of relating to our young kids and being a big sister to them.”
Under the knife
But Jacob’s road to success wasn’t seamless.
She fought through two of the most harrowing experiences of her life before she materialized into the player she is today.
It all began in an April 2009 practice toward the end of her junior year. The Naples, Fla., native felt an aggravating pain in her right knee and soon discovered she had severely damaged cartilage that required her to undergo microfracture surgery a month later.
As a result, she was forced to miss the entire 2009-10 season and acquired a medical redshirt in the process, making her eligible to finish out her career the following season.
However, as Jacob was preparing to make a comeback, she ran into yet another obstacle in her arduous quest to return to the hardwood.
This time, it was her left kneecap — similar to her previous injury — where doctors eventually performed limited lateral release surgery last May. Though the injury wasn’t as severe, it certainly took a toll on Jacob to where she was uncertain if she would ever be able to play basketball again.
“I knew I wanted to [come back and play],” she said. “But my physical capability of being able to come back was definitely tested.
“There were a lot of nights where I was like, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to be able to do it.'”
The comeback trail
But calling it quits wasn’t a part of Jacob’s attitude, nor has it ever, though it would’ve been comprehensible in this case.
After all, she hadn’t played in a game in 18 months and didn’t need to risk further injury. Not to mention, she was already a graduate student who had earned a bachelor’s degree in child development last June.
Nonetheless, Jacob was committed to finishing out her last year of playing the sport she’s loved since childhood.
Jacob said the rehabilitation process took much longer than expected — seven grueling months to be exact — where even the simplest of tasks, such as lifting her leg up straight took a couple of months.
“My knee just wasn’t coming along because I was having a lot of problems with it,” she said. “I had to go up to [Los Angeles] to see a specialist three times a week over the summer and in the beginning of fall for rehab.”
Sure enough, her hard work eventually paid off.
Since her return, Jacob has scored in double figures in 19 of the 25 games she has played this season, and helped move the ‘Niners up three spots in the conference standings.
When LBSU began the regular season four months ago, it was nowhere near being a Big West Tournament title threat. Six of The Beach’s 17 players were sidelined with injuries, while its depleted roster featured 12 new additions — including seven freshmen.
Wynn was then faced with the decision of selecting a captain for a team that had lost its three leading scorers — all seniors — from the previous year.
But for the second-year head coach, it was a “no-brainer,” even if she hadn’t seen Jacob play a game in person at the time.
“I had watched a lot of game film of [LBSU’s] teams in the past,” Wynn said. “So I knew what she was capable of. When she was first cleared to practice, I knew she was a kid who understood the game very well, moved well without the ball, and made her teammates better.”
High hopes
Now a year away from earning her master’s degree, Jacob said her future plans are to become a school psychologist to serve as a mentor to students.
As for now, she said leading her team to a Big West Tournament title this season isn’t out of the realm of possibility.
“That’s definitely still within our grasp,” Jacob said. “And that’s what we’re aiming for. We just gotta stay together and get a few more wins. All of us have faith.”
After all, if there were anyone who knows a thing or two about having faith, it would be Jacob.
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