Kentucky’s sophomore superstar out with hand injury. See how much time she’ll miss.
University of Kentucky sophomore star Rhyne Howard missed the Wildcats’ game at Missouri Thursday because of a fractured finger on her left hand which she suffered in Monday’s win over Auburn.
Before the game, Kentucky announced via its official Twitter account that Howard is expected to be out until mid-February.
Howard left the Auburn game in the third quarter after injuring the finger while trying to force a held ball. She returned in the fourth quarter and scored five of her 10 points to help the Wildcats hold off the Tigers, who rallied to tie the game after trailing by 20.
“You hate it for Rhyne, she wants to play. But in the grand scheme of things it could be much worse. (It’s) not a season-ending injury,” said Kentucky Coach Matthew Mitchell on the UK Radio Network pregame show. “What we stress now for everyone ... is what’s the opportunity now? What’s the opportunity to learn?
“There’s so many ways that we can develop as a team and get better and not use her incredible ability to score as a security blanket. We can work on sharpening up all the things we want to be by the end of the season so when she comes back we’re actually a stronger team because of all of this.”
Howard leads the Southeastern Conference in scoring with an average of 23.2 points per game. Heading into Thursday, Howard had accounted for 32 percent of the Wildcats’ scoring and 36 percent of their made three-pointers.
This story was originally published January 30, 2020 at 7:33 PM.
