SAN FRANCISCO — Julia Nielacna looked down briefly at Pacific's Callie Kaiser before rolling to the basket. She'd just set a high screen at the top of the 3-point arc, stopping a sprinting Kaiser cold and sending her sprawling to the ground. Nielacna, San Francisco's six-foot forward, remained planted, stock-still.
 
She hadn't taken any real contact in over a month.
 
Nielacna had not played since Nov. 9, missing 11 games due to a mysterious abdominal condition. She'd barely even practiced since being medically cleared.
 
Still, the Dons' Polish sophomore banged with a physical Tigers team, scoring nine points and smiling broadly as she boxed out and jockeyed for position in the post. Though she only played 15 minutes in Monday's 84-61 loss to Pacific, Nielacna's return showed — however briefly — just what San Francisco could be with even a moderately healthy roster.
 
"We can be better than we did today," Nielacna said. "There were moments. We need to keep up those moments."
 
The Dons (7-7, 0-2 WCC) had a tough time containing West Coast Conference Player of the Year candidate Valerie Higgins (29 points on 11-of-17 shooting) in their second straight loss to begin conference play, but won the rebounding battle for the 10th time this season, 37-34.
 
While Nielacna didn't have any rebounds, she was able to clog the paint, alter shots and protect the rim. It's a dimension the Dons haven't had for much of the season, despite almost all of their healthy players being forwards.
 
Nielacna has been, as she put it, "out of season" for about 10 months due to various ailments. After flashing improved post skills in the Dons' first two games, the issue that led to an offseason surgery returned, and she was sidelined again. Though she's still experiencing some discomfort and the cause remains unknown, Nielacna's pain has largely gone away.
 
San Francisco head coach Molly Goodenbour gradually worked Nielacna in, giving her two minutes at the end of the first quarter, another three and a half minutes at the end of the first half.
 
"I'm just coming back to basketball movements and to conditioning, so it was just beginning from," Nielacna said. "I hope to adjust better."
 
She played for nearly four minutes in the third, and after setting her hard screen on Kaiser, she rolled to the basket for a layup — her second basket since returning.
 
"I was prepared," Nielacna said. "It wasn't random contact. I was ready. It was good."
 
Though her own jumper wasn't quite back, Nielacna's presence was able to free up shooters to shoot. Though San Francisco didn't have its best day from the floor (20 for 56), each of the eight players who took the floor scored, led by 19 points from Lucie Hoskova (just missing her third straight 20-point game) and 11 from Leilah Vigil, who notched her sixth double-double with 11 rebounds. The Tigers (8-4, 1-0 WCC), though, benefitted from 33 points off a season-high 24 turnovers by the Dons, who forced 18 turnovers of their own.
 
Late in Nielacna's most extended run of the day in the fourth quarter (six minutes), she grinned widely as she got her hands up in the paint and cut down the angle for Higgins, forcing a wild layup miss — something she'll do more often as her minutes increase.
 
"It was fantastic to do that again," Nielacna said. "I missed that a lot."