STONY BROOK, N.Y. — While Vermont managed to carry out a victory over Stony Brook on Saturday night, the Catamounts did suffer one loss.
After senior Ethan O’Day missed a jumper near the free throw line, junior Dre Wills pulled down the offensive rebound, jumped back in the lane and converted a two over Ray McGrew who fouled him. However, the 6’1” Wills fell down hard on his hip and was escorted off the court by a trainer. He left the floor under his own power, but was moved off the bench and treated further underneath the arena.
He did not return to the game after leaving with 16:15 left in the first half and did not warm up with the team to start the second half.
“He landed on his hip pretty hard, so his hip’s hurting pretty good, but couldn’t slide or do anything, make any basketball moves, so no need to risk it at this point,” head coach John Becker said of Wills’ injury. “We’re hopeful. We’ll get him up to Vermont and get him with our trainer, team doctor and we’ll get him straightened out.”
Wills, who served an eight game suspension earlier this season, has been a capable defender throughout his career for the Catamounts. He has averaged 9.3 ppg since returning to the team on Jan. 18. He also has made 61.7% of his two-pointers and is a capable driving threat as well as guard that can clean up boards off the glass when O’Day or Payen are in foul trouble.
“He was out a lot this year with the suspension and stuff, we were pretty good without him and we have confidence playing without him,” Becker said. “We prefer to play with him though.”
The Catamounts open up their America East Playoffs as the third seed and will host Maine on Wednesday night at 7:30pm.
Ryan Restivo wrote the America East conference preview for the 2015-16 Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook. He covers the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, the America East conference among others for Big Apple Buckets. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @ryanarestivo or contact Ryan at rrestivo[at]nycbuckets.com.
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