With Ingram done for season, Ridgnal could be answer for UGA

Mcmillan, Baumann also are options to help replace starter.

ATHENS — It’s official. Jailyn Ingram did suffer a torn ACL and will be out for the season.

A Madison resident and graduate transfer from Florida Atlantic, Ingram suffered a noncontact knee injury in the second half of Georgia’s victory against Jacksonville on Tuesday night. An MRI exam Wednesday confirmed the initial diagnosis.

The Bulldogs (4-5) will pursue another season of eligibility for Ingram, who had started all nine games and was the team’s leading rebounder (6.0 pg) and third-leading scorer (10.7 ppg).

“It’s heartbreaking because Jailyn had been emerging in so many areas and was a model of consistency day in and day out,” Georgia coach Tom Crean tweeted Thursday. “He’s an incredible young man. We will help him in every way.”

Ingram is the second starter the Bulldogs have lost to a season-ending knee injury. Senior P.J. Horne, the team’s leading returning scorer, was lost in the final weeks of preseason practice. In the short term, the Bulldogs will look for greater contributions from junior Tyron Mcmillan (6-foot-9, 220) and graduate transfer Noah Baumann (6-6, 210), who already were a part of the regular rotation. But the best fit for replacing the specific skill set that Ingram was bringing to the floor for the Bulldogs is junior Dalen Ridgnal (6-7, 200).

To date, Ridgnal has struggled to adjust to Division I basketball and Crean’s openfloor concept. He has averaged only 5.3 minutes of play in eight games for the Bulldogs. But Ridgnal has collected 11 rebounds in those five minutes of play, which meshes with the 11.7 rebounds he averaged in two seasons at Cowley College. A Kansas City native, Ridgnal earned junior college All-american honors while leading Cowley in scoring (18.6) the past two seasons.

Tougher to replace, though, will be Ingram’s emerging leadership.

“What I’d been seeing from Jailyn in games and in practice the last two weeks is a guy that was going to challenge to be an all-league defensive player,” Crean said. “He had made so many strides on that and in his leadership.”