Women’s basketball looks to overcome injuries at North Dakota

State Hornet Staff

While injuries have not been a factor up to this point for the Sacramento State women’s basketball team, this past week two players did not practice.

Senior forward Kylie Kuhns wore a walking boot because of tendonitis in her foot, but she and her coach have said that she will play today.

“It’s been this way for the last month, but I’ve been playing through it,” Kuhns said. “It’s been really irritated, so we are trying to get on top of it to make it though the season.”

Sac State head coach Jamie Craighead said that tendonitis is a common injury in basketball players and throughout a season everyone gets hurt and everyone plays through it.

“Kylie is a senior and she knows what we are doing and knows how to do it,” Craighead said. “She was not sitting out because she was injured; she just plays a lot of minutes on the court in games.”

Despite Kuhns’ absence in drills, she did not shy away from coaching her teammates during practice. 

Junior forward Sadie Clements also did not practice this week because of a sprained ankle she suffered on Monday during practice.

Clements currently leads all bench players with 9.1 points per game and is second on the team with 22 3-point field goals made.

Craighead said Clements’ status is to be determined and whether or not she will play will be a game-time decision.

The Hornets continue their Big Sky Conference season today as they face the University of North Dakota for the first ever meeting between the two programs.

North Dakota is one of the new teams who joined the Big Sky and despite only winning two conference games so far this season, the program has shown it can be successful at home with a 5-2 record.

“In the Big Sky, every team wins more home games than road games,” Craighead said. “The travel takes a lot out of you, but it doesn’t change how we prepare. We just have to be focused and make sure the players are healthy.”

Tipoff is at 5:05 p.m. and can be viewed on bigskytv.org.