DaVonte Lacy Injury Tough Blow For Washington State

The Washington State Cougars have been dealt a tough blow, as it is being reported that junior guard DaVonte Lacy will miss four to six weeks due to the rib injury he suffered back on Jan. 5 in Tempe against the Arizona State Sun Devils.

Injury update – Cal’s Jabari Bird will see minutes against UW. Rough news for WSU, Davonte lacy out 4-6 wks. More on @Pac12Networks 6pst

— Michael Yam (@Mike_Yam) January 14, 2014

The Spokesman-Review out of Spokane is reporting that “the CAT scans revealed that the cartilage damage was worse than initially feared, and that doctors expect Lacy to miss 4-6 weeks, retroactive to the injury.”

Lacy is the best player on Ken Bone‘s team right now and his absence will surely condemn the Cougars to another year without postseason basketball in the Palouse. Washington State is currently sitting at 8-8, 1-3 in Pac-12 play, but nearly pulled off a massive upset over 15th ranked Colorado Buffaloes before falling in overtime. Junior guard Dexter Kernich-Drew picked up the slack left in Lacy’s absence with 24 points.

Kernick-Drew, Royce Woolridge and Que Johnson will be the ones tasked with elevating their games to keep Washington State in contention for postseason play. Their task will be tough, as Lacy led the team in minutes per game (31.7) as well as points per game (17.7); he has scored 20 percent of the team’s points this season.

It has been a very injury-plagued season for the junior guard out of Tacoma, WA, who missed the game in Tucson against the top ranked Arizona Wildcats after having an emergency appendectomy. The Cougars were only able to manage 25 points in that loss.

If there is any silver lining for the Cougars, it’s that the timetable set for the injury is retroactive to when the injury took place, so if his recovery goes smoothly, then there is an outside chance that he could return for the Feb. 1 clash with the Washington Huskies at Beasley Coliseum. More than likely though, he will be ready to go for the late February trip to Corvallis and the Oregon State Beavers.

Matthew Evans is a soccer writer for www.RantSports.com, “Like” him on Facebook, Follow him on Twitter, or add him to your network on Google.