The concussion was real enough.

The elbow to the head that separated Ohio State forward Kalpana Beach from her senses in a game at Oklahoma on Dec. 4 was viewable on replay, even if the contact didn’t draw a foul call.

Contact, of course, happens in a basketball game.

Hitting the wall is another matter. A proverbial rite of passage for freshmen players, this obstruction can’t be seen on video. But a player caught in a midseason slump can swear that she can reach out and touch real mortar and brick.

Beach had soared into the game against the Sooners as a rebounding force and a third offensive source for the Buckeyes behind guards Samantha Prahalis and Tayler Hill.

Two missed games and two weeks later, Beach returned to the starting lineup, but her pre-injury production didn’t accompany her. Concussions are like that, coach Jim Foster said.

“It’s measurable in my mind,” he said. “I mean, you can look at so many facets. It’s like, did she lose some of her aggressiveness, etc., etc., etc.”

A little more than two months later, Foster reviewed video of Ohio State’s 80-71 win over Purdue on Sunday in Value City Arena. Beach was back for the stretch run of the Big Ten regular season for the ninth-ranked Buckeyes (22-3, 9-3).

“We were looking at hustle plays,” Foster said. “We had 14 of them where we were diving for a loose ball or running down a rebound. Kalpana was in the middle of half of them. That is a great sign.”

Beach considered her performance against the Boilermakers as part of a slow but steady recovery from her encounters with the elbow and a slump.

“I only can control so many things,” she said. “Definitely one thing I can always do is hustle on every play. And I decided that I’m not going to settle for the numbers I’ve been getting.”

In the two games before her concussion, Beach averaged 12 points and seven rebounds in wins over Louisiana State and Florida State. The game grew harder upon her return.

“Some people said that (the concussion) may have left me timid afterward,” Beach said. “I don’t think that it affected me that much. I just wasn’t getting the same results.”

The injury did open the door to more minutes for sophomore Darryce Moore, and she seized the opportunity. The two now share the power forward spot and each backs up sophomore center Ashley Adams.

Opponents lately have begun attacking the youthful posts at the defensive end. Learning where to be in multiple defenses that are run during a game can cause breakdowns and bench time.

“It’s a very difficult thing to do,” Foster said. “It’s not only being in the right place at the right time. How hard do you run? You have to break all the bad high-school and AAU habits, especially on rotations. (Beach) is getting better.”

Beach credits Hill with helping her through the tough times.

“Tayler told me that she knows how hard it can be,” Beach said. “She went through the same kind of thing as a freshman. I think I’m slowly getting back to where I was.”

jmassie@dispatch.com