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LMU BASKETBALL NEWS |
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LINCOLN MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY OFFICE OF SPORTS INFORMATION Sports Release January 16, 2008 Injury Plagued Railsplitters Fall To Newberry 67-58 HARROGATE, TN – The 2007-08 season must seem like a bad nightmare for Lincoln Memorial University Men’s Basketball Coach Hugh Watson. (Box score)
Before the season even started, the Railsplitters lost a freshman point guard for the season to a knee injury. Since that time the Railsplitters have dismissed one player for academics, one for team rules violations, have lost a player to a knee surgery, have a 6’10” post player sidelined with knee problems and in Wednesday night’s game with Newberry, saw leading scorer Beau Brown (Athens, TN) and freshman guard and third leading scorer Ryan Whitaker (Pineville, KY) go down with ankle injuries. Add everything up and the Railsplitters don’t even have enough players healthy to hold a practice.
Despite turning his ankle in the second half of Wednesday’s game, Brown did manage to play the remainder of the contest with a taped ankle courtesy of the LMU athletic training department. Whitaker however didn’t return to the evening’s 67-58 loss to Newberry and both are listed as questionable for Saturday’s road conference match-up with Lenoir-Rhyne College.
To make matters even worse, the Railsplitters will be without the services of junior guard Wadner Joseph (Miami, FL) on Saturday, as he will leave the team for several days to attend his grandfather’s funeral in Florida. “In nearly 40 years of coaching, I don’t know that I have ever seen anything like it,” said LMU Head Coach Hugh Watson. “We have to get tough, but some of the things that have happened to these guys is beyond that.”
At 5-10 overall and 0-4 in league play, the Railsplitters will travel to Hickory, North Carolina on Saturday with four healthy players and one that is recovering from strep-throat. Beau Brown and Ryan Whitaker could possibly be able to play by the weekend but that will depend on how quickly their ankles respond to rehabilitation and how much pain they can play through. So, at least for the time, the Railsplitters will have to find a way to utilize the players they have. One thing is for sure however, the road won’t be an easy place to play and the Railsplitters know it. -LMU- For additional
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