More bad breaks for the Bulls.
Earlier this season, USF lost its best player—Kitija Laksa—to a season-ending injury. And since that point, the Bulls have gone 6-5 without her, including a three-game losing skid dating back to Creighton on Dec. 20.
The injury bug has unfortunately continued into the new year, as USF announced Beatriz Jordao will miss the remainder of the season with an apparent nagging leg injury. In the Bulls’ latest contest against LSU, she played just nine minutes and was 0-2 from the field.
The freshman center from Portugal averaged 11.3 points and 5.7 rebounds in 12 games played and claimed Freshman of the Week honors in the American Conference twice this year. Without her and Laksa’s production to lean on, the Bulls have two other players averaging double-digit points this year: senior wing Laura Ferreira and freshman point guard Sidni Harvey.
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With that said, the Bulls will need their bigs to step up. Alyssa Rader and Shae Leverett particularly jump out as being capable of adding more of an offensive presence down low and making a difference in the rebounding column. Both standing at 6’2, the two are averaging 8.0 and 6.6 points per game, respectively, to go with a combined 196 rebounds in 14 games.
With 10 healthy players remaining, any contribution (big or small) will matter, whether a player averages 30 or more minutes, to those who play around 15 or less.
Although a guard, this injury leaves room for Shae Leverett to do a little more, too. Playing around 20 minutes a game, it’s clear she’s making a difference in the time she gets at 6.6 points per game and 6.1 rebounds—the second best on the team behind Rader’s 7.9.
For a team that averages 72.5 points per game, and is down roughly 27 points without Laksa and Jordao, that’s no small feat to overcome. With just nine minutes from Jordao and obviously Laksa sidelined in their latest loss to LSU, the Bulls put up just 48 points.
As does any injury or level of adversity that happens mid-season, it takes time to adjust. USF takes on Temple on Jan. 5 as they look to make those adjustments and get back in the win column without a couple key contributors.