With less than four minutes left in the first quarter of Ohio State's 94-84 overtime win against Penn State last Sunday, many fans at Value City Arena got to their feet. They saw who was checking into the game for the Buckeyes.

Almost a full year to the day that Ohio State's Madison Greene suffered her second season-ending ACL injury, she returned to the court for the Buckeyes. With teammate Rikki Harris hyping up the crowd, the Pickerington Central alum received a standing ovation.

"Me, her, Rikki and Beks (Rebeka Mikulasikova), have been here the longest," teammate Jacy Sheldon said. "So, just to see her be able to be back on the court with us is awesome, and we’ve been watching her throughout the whole time she’s been here. We’ve been with her through recovery, through the injuries."

While Greene recorded only four minutes in her season debut and went 0-1 from the field, it was a step in the right direction. In the Buckeyes' next game, Friday against Grand Valley State, she was on the floor for 21 minutes and scored her first points of the year off of two first-quarter free throws.

Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff has been open since the preseason about how he wants to ease Greene back into the lineup.

"Just having done it twice, we just want to make sure we take her time and put her in the best position possible," McGuff said. "As we collaborate with the training staff, that's kind of like the plan we've come up with."

Greene went down with a left ACL injury last December against South Florida. That came 12 games into the season that was supposed to be her comeback year after suffering her first season-ending injury at the beginning of 2021-22.

"It was definitely really hard," Greene said. "I was eternally angry at first. And that it happened the second time, I was very discouraged. I feel like I just came back, and I was doing well, and we were winning. To go through that again, it really was hard emotionally at first."

Despite how frustrating her second injury was, Greene was far from ready to give up. And staying local allowed her to lean on family throughout the recovery process, which would have been more difficult if Greene ended up playing for one of the Buckeyes' conference rivals, as she originally intended.

'What if that happened and I was at Penn State?'

Coming out of Pickerington Central, Greene was an ESPN Hoopgirlz top-100 ranked recruit with 1,000 points and an Ohio girls' basketball state championship under her belt. She also was committed to Penn State for most of her senior year.

The Nittany Lions, however, fired coach Coquese Washington in March 2019, causing Greene to look elsewhere and giving Ohio State a chance to add a player they initially missed out on.

Sheldon, who had played against Greene while at Dublin Coffman, was already committed to Ohio State when Greene started weighing her options again. So Sheldon took a shot at persuading Greene to stay in Columbus.

"We were together and I was just kind of putting Ohio State in her ear like, ‘You know, it'd be kind of fun to play together,' " Sheldon said.

Those efforts paid off when Greene committed to Ohio State in May 2019.

Little did Greene know how important being close to home would eventually be to her college hoops journey. Coming back from two injuries took mental and physical strength, and it helped Greene "tremendously," being able to go through the processes with her family close by.

'I've never heard her complain'

Before Greene suffered her second injury, Sheldon found herself sidelined with a foot injury. At this point, the two were much closer than they were as competitors in high school. They had even begun rooming together.

Going through the rehab process alongside one another allowed Green and Sheldon to grow an even tighter bond, as they both were experiencing "the same type of pain," as Greene put it. Having to be in the training room earlier and longer than their other teammates, they pushed each other.

"There's some days you go in there, neither of us were practicing at the time, neither of us were able to do anything and you don't want to be in there," Sheldon said. "So, I think being in there together, being able to rehab, do all that extra stuff together, was really good for both.”

Sheldon got a long firsthand look at Greene's resilience.

"She’s a warrior. She's been through a whole lot this year," Sheldon said. "She's got a lot of things to complain about and she doesn't come in here and complain at all. She comes in here and she gets her stuff done."

Finding her voice

Greene was away from her teammates on the court for 355 days while coming back from her second injury. Off the court, however, Greene remained engaged with the team. During every timeout she was on the bench, the guard talked to her teammates about what was happening from her perspective.

"She’s very observant and is very bright," McGuff said. "She watches from the sidelines, and she picks up things very quickly."

Joining a rotation that has made quite a few additions since her last appearance, Greene had to find a way to quickly build a connection with the new players. That's where the lessons in communication from her time as essentially a student-coach came in handy.

"I'm more vocal with them and always trying to talk to them ... even though I wasn't playing or practicing," Greene said. "So now I want to carry everything that I say and all the vocalizations and stuff, while I'm returning on the court.”

While her return is going to be gradual and there is no specific role McGuff has planned for the redshirt senior, he's sure she will have a positive impact.

But just in case there are any doubters, Greene has a message.

“I just want to prove to people that no matter what you go through in your life, no matter what it is, you can always overcome it," Greene said. "And I just really want to prove that I can come back just as strong as I was before.”

bmackay@dispatch.com

@brimackay15

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State's Madison Greene returns to action after second ACL injury