WALLA WALLA–"Yeah, it felt good," was the understated way Emma Severs put her return to the basketball court in last week's 1B Girls District 9 Championship game here.

Severs, a 5-9 junior point guard, has been on the sidelines since last summer when she sustained an injury to her right knee in summer basketball.

Last Friday, Severs drained three from beyond the arc, swishing the long ball and helping Pomeroy to a 50-39 win over Oakesdale.

Fans seemed to be holding their breaths when Coach Tai Bye put Severs in the game in the first quarter.

They needn't have bothered.

"I was more mentally prepared for this than I thought I was going to be," Severs told the East Washingtonian. "I feel better than I did before I got hurt."

On July 1, 2019, the Pomeroy girls were playing summer league in Genesee. Severs went up for a lay in and got taken out at the hip. "I heard a 'pop!' and I knew something wasn't right.

The news wasn't good. Severs would need surgery, which took place August 8, miss her junior year of volleyball and all of the basketball season, with the possibility of being ready just as the team goes into playoffs.

"I watched volleyball...our girls won the state championship, which was fantastic," Severs said. "And then I watched us go undefeated in basketball for so long, and then I was finally able to come back and help us win this District Championship."

The Lady Pirates' upcoming opponents might pay mightily for Severs's long road in recovery, just as the Lady Nighthawks did. Severs nailed her comeback trey with a minute to go in the first quarter, hit another in the second quarter and made it an eleven-point game with one more at 1:25 to play.

"It felt 'complete' to have her back," Bye said. "It's been an emotional season without her. And it was an emotional time to get her back, but it feels so good to get her back. She brings a calmness to the floor that not many girls do. She has a presence that is so mature. She's just a leader and she has been a voice to these girls, and finally, she got to be in the physical piece of it tonight. And, hey, she came out and drained some awesome threes."