A bruised bone and a nearly-two month recovery later, Sira Thienou is back at her peak, and she wasted no time reminding the bracket who she is.
There were the tiniest bits of doubt lingering beneath all the hype about Thienou's return in the Big Dance, mainly because she hasn't seen the floor in nearly two months.
"It was good. I was excited, and it felt really good to be back on the court with my teammates and having fun and do what I love," she said post-game on her return.
Sira Thienou torches Gonzaga in her return
Though sporting a brace on her left knee, Thienou buried any talk of rust in the first four minutes. Gonzaga didn’t score their first bucket until 5:06 left in the first quarter—meaning the Rebels held them scoreless for nearly five minutes.
During that "shutout" stretch, Ole Miss's swarming defense (led by Thienou's length) forced three blocks on Gonzaga's first four shots. By the time the halftime whistle blew, Thienou already had four blocks, tying a program record for a single tournament game in just twenty minutes of play.
12 points, eight rebounds, four blocks, and three steals later, Thienou knew exactly the type of statement she was sending entering Round Two.
Those are the type of numbers that Coach Yo mentioned needing in the Rebels' regular-season 4-game skid. Now that her squad has it, the Rebls' head coach considers herself a "happy camper".
"Oh, my gosh, 12 points, eight rebounds, three steals, four blocks after a month off? What do you think? I'm a happy camper, to the point where I was like, I just wanted to bottle her up. I didn't even play her anymore after that," Coach Yo said of the sophomore guard.
"She just means a lot to us, and I think her sitting out and having a chance to watch the game has really helped her, and we're going to need her, so grateful to have her back."
The 81-66 disruption of the Zags was just a preview of what's about to come.