Breland cleared for full-contact practice

CHAPEL HILL - It’s hurt Jessica Breland to watch this basketball season from the bench, unable to contribute one shot to help her North Carolina teammates.

Last summer, Breland was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma - a treatable form of cancer that attacks the immune system. She has since undergone chemotherapy and announced that her cancer is in “remission,” though has taken a redshirt this season as she recovers.

Without the 6-foot-3 standout senior, the Tar Heels (17-9, 5-7 ACC) have struggled this season - dropping six of their past seven games. They travel to Georgia Tech today before ending the regular season at home against No. 6 Duke on Sunday.

“I hate to see my teammates struggle,” Breland said on Thursday. “I kind of feel really, really bad. I just started to cope with it well, losing all these games. ... I don’t like losing in anything.”

With Breland, UNC coach Sylvia Hatchell said the Heels are a different team. Her height, speed and athleticism as a power forward are difficult to replace. It’s also difficult to make up for Breland’s production, as she averaged 14.5 points and 8.1 rebound per game, and has shot 52.6 percent from the field for her career.

She led the ACC with 16 double-doubles.

“We might have lost a couple of games, but there wouldn’t have been many we would have loss,” Hatchell said. “She is the perfect four player and that’s what we don’t have.”

Breland travels with the Heels and has participated in non-contact drills in practice. She is monitored closely by the training staff, but has been slowly working her way back into condition for the past three weeks.

Thursday she was cleared by doctors to participate in full-contact drills, a good sign that she has regained the body mass and strength she loss battling cancer.

She weighs 180 pounds after dropping down to 140 during her earliest days of chemotherapy. The medicine she was prescribed during chemotherapy damaged her lungs, something she is being treated for by doctors at UNC Hospitals. 

Even so, she no longer struggles with shortness of breath while jogging down court. 

“I’m where an average person would be breathing,” she said. “But where an athlete would be at, where I was ... I’m not there.”

On Wednesday, Breland took the court at Carmichael Arena to practice. She filled in on the scout team and displayed the touch and range that made her a must-guard players last season.

During one possession, she flashed to the high post and drained a jumper. On another play, she drove the lane, stretched out her long tattooed arm for a left-handed layup.

“She’s playing with some type of motivation that she’s never played with,” UNC junior point guard Cetera DeGraffenreid said. “You just see her going up there grabbing the rebound, hands almost above the rim. Just hustling. That smooth shot.”

Breland, a Kelford native, turned 22 on Tuesday and had just one birthday wish.

“It would be [for] God to direct my path for next year,” she said. “I feel like I could be the national player of the year and I’m aiming for it. So that would be my birthday wish. It wouldn’t be to get back on the court now because I know that me being off the court is helping me for next year.”

Still, every game out of uniform is painful.

“It’s nothing I’d rather do but be on the court,” she said.