University of North Carolina Athletics
Amato: Breland At Home In Greensboro
March 4, 2011 | Women's Basketball
March 4, 2011
by Neil Amato, TarHeelBlue.com
GREENSBORO - Jessica Breland feels at home in the halls of the Greensboro Coliseum. And why not? She's been roaming them since 2007, winning nearly 90 percent of the time.
Breland, North Carolina's quiet elder with quite a backstory, has played nine games here in the ACC Tournament, including Thursday night's 78-64 victory over Clemson. UNC is 8-1 in those games heading into Friday night's quarterfinal against third-seeded Florida State.
Breland has been part of two ACC Tournament championship teams for the Tar Heels, but none since 2008. She'd like to finish what she started, not letting cancer or an opponent get in the way.
Breland isn't a rah-rah sort of leader, which is why having to miss the 2009-10 season after being diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma was difficult on so many levels. Forgetting the treatment part, there's also the matter of Breland's personality. She knows her limits. She's never going to get in a teammates' face, or clap and yell.
She's not that kind of leader. She's a player who needs to play to be effective.
"It's hard to lead from the bench," she said Thursday night.
Breland and fellow seniors Italee Lucas and Cetera DeGraffenreid were challenged by Coach Sylvia Hatchell, before the ACC Tournament, to go out as they came in. Even though UNC is the No. 6 seed in the tournament, the product of a four-game losing streak to end the regular season, Hatchell likes her team's chances.
With a record of 23-7 in ACC play in the coliseum, the Tar Heels are confident.
"We like it here," Hatchell said.
Breland certainly looks comfortable on this floor. Though she finished 5 of 12 from the floor, her shots seemed to lift North Carolina each time Clemson made a move to get back in the game.
"North Carolina did a really good job of attacking our zone, in particular Jessica Breland at the free-throw line," Clemson coach Itoro Coleman said. "She hit some really key shots. It felt like, when we made a run, she would hit one shot, and then they would make a big run."
Hatchell was happy to see Breland back in the flow after the Tar Heels' previous game, a loss at Duke in the regular-season finale, when Breland did not score.
"Getting Jessica going was big," Hatchell said.
Breland contributed solid defense and six rebounds, and she made the little plays a fifth-year senior would be expected to make. The venue helped her, though that wasn't the case on her first trip here in 2007.
"My freshman year, I was nervous. I didn't know what to expect," she said. "This year, I know what the crowd will be like, and being here again, it's brought back memories of Erlana."
That would be Erlana Larkins, for those who might have forgotten the powerful forward who was no less than second-team all-tournament in four seasons, capping her career with tournament MVP honors in 2008. Breland would be happy to boast to some former teammates if she gets three titles, but she can't top Larkins, who won four in a row from 2005-08.
Still, as Breland roams these halls and high posts for the last time, she feels a certain comfort zone. And if the Tar Heels don't return to the top of the ACC perch this weekend, Breland still has hardware to take home.
Before tipoff of the Clemson game, she was honored with the league's Bob Bradley Spirit and Courage Award.
The Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association has presented the award "to the male or female basketball player, coach or team administrator who has overcome significant adversity to become a valuable contributor to his or her own program and school." The award is named for Bradley, the Clemson sports information director who died in 2000 after battling bone cancer for three years.
The award was created in 2006, three years before Breland was diagnosed, but it seems as if the honor was created for her.
