Alivia Elmore sticks her tongue out as she glides in for a layup, then the smile immediately returns as she jogs to the back of the line during pregame warmups for Jennings County's regular-season finale at Franklin. They're expressions of pure joy from Elmore, whose senior season was preceded by a 630-day hiatus, one which required her to endure back-to-back ACL recoveries with virtually no respite in between.

The 5-8 guard was nearing a return from her initial ACL tear prior to last season when her knee gave out again, leading doctors to discover the surgery did not take.

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"We didn't know if we were ever going to get back to this point and it's amazing and nerve wracking at the same time," NaTasha Elmore said of watching her daughter play.

"But it's in her," she continued. "Alivia has played basketball since the third grade and it's always been her dream to play at the next level like her aunt (at Bellarmine). It's in her blood and she wants to be part of that heritage. So to see her out there, you can't even put it into words, especially after the fight she put forth and the struggle she went through to get back."

Injuries — the freakish setback aside — are nothing new for Elmore. Never one to shy away from contact or hit the deck for a loose ball, she recalls "always getting hurt" growing up and her uncanny pain tolerance is well-documented.

Two nights after playing the best game of her freshman year in Dec. 2020, Elmore could barely get up the floor against Bedford North Lawrence, the nagging result of landing sideways on her foot about three weeks earlier. The discomfort was manageable at first, she said, but it was getting progressively worse.

"I guess I was just stubborn trying to play on it," Elmore smirked. "But eventually I couldn't even walk and I was like, OK, this is serious. I need to go get it looked at."

Turns out, Elmore had broken her foot. More specifically, she'd suffered a Lisfranc (midfoot) injury, which has an estimated incidence of 1/55,000 people according to the National Library of Medicine.

"Alivia is the kid whose nose is bleeding or her lip's busted or there's blood running down her arm and you're like, 'Alivia, you need to come out.' And she'll reply: 'Nah, I'm good. Just leave me in,'" NaTasha laughed.

Elmore felt a different — but dreadfully familiar — sensation during a practice ahead of last season: A pop followed by a sharp, intense pain in her knee.

She last felt it while moving laterally during the sectional championship against BNL her sophomore year: A pop followed by a sharp, intense pain. Elmore said it felt like her knee had come out of place. "I was on the ground screaming and crying. It was an excruciating pain. I couldn't get up."

Not entirely aware of the arduous recovery that awaited her, Elmore was "super positive" and quickly shifted attention to returning ahead of the doctor's one-year timetable and was on track to do so.

But something was still off, she said.

It felt like her knee was still shifting.

"It didn't feel right," Elmore continued. "I was concerned about it, but my doctor was telling me there was nothing wrong with it, so we didn't really do anything about it. … I was suspicious, but he wasn't."

Elmore's knee gave out during a layup drill a few weeks before the start of her junior season.

"My heart shattered," said senior Juliann Woodard, who's been close friends with Elmore since elementary school.

Elmore and her parents consulted 3-4 different doctors before selecting a surgeon to perform the second operation, during which he discovered there "wasn't even a fiber of an ACL left." Elmore's body had absorbed everything from the original graft, NaTasha said, meaning she had probably been without an ACL since the 6-12-week mark.

Elmore was two weeks from being cleared at the time.

"There were a lot of tears. Everyone was in shock," said coach Kristi Sigler, who remembers the date of Elmore's second surgery (Oct. 6, 2022). "We didn't dream the ACL was gone."

After pouring all that work into her recovery, Elmore's reward was having to go through it all again, this time with the knowledge of what to expect. It was devastating, but she was determined it wouldn't get the best of her.

"OK, now I'm really going to have to fight to get where I want to be (and play in college), because this sets me back even further," she told herself. "When my doctor told me I would be out for a year, I looked him in the face and told him, 'I'm not going to be out for a year. I'm telling you, I'm coming back.'"

Elmore was concerned if she would be able to get back to where she was before, but she "turned a corner" when she regained full-range of motion in her knee. It came with a sense of relief, NaTasha said. Elmore was in control as she focused on building strength.

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The doctor recommended she spend an hour on the stationary bike each day, so that's what Elmore did, in addition to squat exercises and physical therapy sessions — with her PT, at school (strength and conditioning class) and even during basketball practice (one of her coaches is a PT).

"It was just non-stop," NaTasha laughed. "As she felt stronger physically, she felt better mentally."

I'm strong enough to do this.

Elmore returned over the summer, eight months after her second surgery.

It was difficult for Elmore to watch from the sidelines as everyone else played the sport she loves, but she maintained a leadership role from the bench and gained a new appreciation for basketball over the 630 days following that fateful final vs. BNL. And upon her return, Elmore wasted little time getting back into the swing of things and resumed diving around. Sigler occasionally gets after her, but "I can't control it," laughed Elmore, a 50% shooter averaging 13 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals. "It's just the way I play."

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There have been stressful moments, like when the senior guard was banged up while chasing after a loose ball during the Hall of Fame Classic championship game. She looked to be in some pain, but she gutted it out, going blow-for-blow with Columbia City over a critical fourth-quarter stretch.

That's who she is, Sigler said. "She's a fighter."

"Alivia deserves everything that comes for her," Woodard added. "She's the hardest-working player I know and if you're not looking at her (as a college coach), you're making a mistake. … Watching her work through the hardships, the journey that she's had, the person she is — it's great watching her succeed."

Jennings County (22-3) plays Jeffersonville (13-9) in the Class 4A Sectional 15 semifinals Friday at Floyd Central.

Follow Brian Haenchen on Twitter at @Brian_Haenchen.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IHSAA girls basketball: Alivia Elmore inspires Jennings County