UConn star Bueckers to miss entire season
UConn women’s basketball star Paige Bueckers tore the ACL in her left knee during a pickup game and will miss the entire 2022-23 season, the school announced Wednesday.
UConn said in a statement that Bueckers suffered the injury Monday and underwent an MRI that evening. It did not say where the junior guard from Hopkins, Minnesota, was playing when the injury occurred. It was the same knee she injured last year, causing her to miss significant time.
In a statement posted on her Instagram account, Bueckers said she is leaning on her faith to move forward.
“It’s so so crazy because you work so hard to get back healthy, you feel stronger than ever, and you are playing your best basketball and with one sudden movement it all shifts,” she wrote. “It’s hard trying to make sense of it all now but I can’t help but think that God is using me as a testimony as to how much you can overcome with Him by your side.”
Bueckers was named the 2020-21 AP national player of the year, becoming the first freshman to earn that honor. She averaged 20.1 points, 5.9 assists and 2.3 steals per game that season.
She missed 19 games last season after suffering a left knee tibia plateau fracture and torn meniscus in early December. But Bueckers returned to lead the Huskies to the Final Four, where the Huskies lost to South Carolina in the championship game at Target Center in Minneapolis, which is 10 miles from her hometown.
She finished the season averaging 14.6 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game.
“We’re all devastated for Paige,” UConn coach Geno
Auriemma said. “She’s worked really hard to get stronger and healthier this offseason, and this is an unfortunate setback. Paige is obviously an amazing basketball player, but she’s a better person and teammate and it’s really unfortunate that this has happened to her. We’ll miss her presence on the court, but she’ll do everything she can to still lead and help her teammates this season. Our program will support Paige through her healing process to help her come back better and stronger.”
UConn said Bueckers will undergo surgery on Friday at UConn Health in Farmington.
BRAVES LOSE TO PHILLIES
Nick Castellanos hit a tiebreaking two-run homer in the eighth inning as the Philadelphia Phillies took full advantage of an overturned call, beating the Atlanta Braves 3-1 on Wednesday.
After getting blown out 13-1 in the opener of the two-game series between NL East rivals, the Phillies looked to be down to their final three outs when J.T. Realmuto grounded into what was ruled an inning-ending double play with the Braves nursing a 1-0 lead.
But Philadelphia challenged the call, and the replay showed Realmuto’s foot getting to the bag ahead of the relay throw while Rhys Hoskins trotted home from third.
With the game now tied at 1, Collin McHugh (2-2) fell behind 2-0 in the count before grooving one to Castellanos, who launched a 420-foot drive over the center-field wall for his ninth homer of the season.
Zack Wheeler (10-5) claimed the win over his hometown team with five-hit ball over seven innings, snapping Atlanta’s fourgame winning streak. His only big mistake came in the fifth, when he served up a homer to Orlando Arcia.
Phillies newcomer David Robertson, acquired in a series of deals ahead of the trade deadline, worked a scoreless ninth for his first Philadelphia save after locking down 14 wins for the Chicago Cubs.
The Braves wasted 6 ⅔ scoreless innings by Charlie Morton, who turned in another strong performance by Atlanta’s rotation.
Over the last five games, the starters have surrendered just 16 hits and three runs in 33 innings, with seven walks and 40 strikeouts.
The Braves are leading the NL wild-card race and but have their sights set higher as they hit the road for a rare five-game series against the first-place Mets.
New York came into the day 2 games ahead of the World Series champion Braves, who have won four straight NL East titles.
IONESCU LEADS LIBS
Sabrina Ionescu scored eight of her 20 points in the final 2:18 and the Liberty rallied from a 15-point deficit in the third quarter to beat the Los Angeles Sparks 64-61.
The Liberty (13-18) earned two wins over the Sparks (12-19) in the span of 24 hours, sweeping the back-to-back set. New York had a much tougher time than its 102-73 victory a night earlier to stay in the playoff hunt.