Indiana Women's Basketball: Grace Berger Out Indefinitely With Knee Injury
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana women's basketball head coach Teri Moren said senior guard Grace Berger is out indefinitely after going down with a right knee injury in the Hoosiers' 96-81 win over Auburn in Las Vegas last Friday.
"She is out indefinitely, and that's where we are right now," Moren said. "Time will tell but right now, she's day-to-day, and she's obviously not going to play on Thursday."
In the Hoosiers' third offensive possession versus the Tigers, Berger went down and immediately sat the bench with her leg iced and extended across a few chairs the remainder of the game. She didn't play in the Hoosiers' 79-64 win over Memphis on Saturday.
Moren said Berger didn't need crutches, but used them anyway to get around the huge hotel on Saturday. Her MRI was scheduled for Sunday evening when the team landed, but Moren and the program aren't releasing how serious the results were just yet.
"We'll move forward," Moren said. "We have other pieces, We were still able to score an awful lot of points at that tournament without Grace, which was a great sign."
Without the star guard, Indiana managed well with five players scoring in double figures on Friday and four on Saturday.
"Certainly, we want her back as quickly as we can get her back, but as of right now with her being out indefinitely, there's going to be opportunities for other people to step up in a big kind of way," Moren said.
Junior guard Sydney Parrish will now start in place of Berger. The Oregon transfer started off her first year in the cream and crimson strong as the sixth woman off the bench, contributing 10.1 points and 6.3 rebounds per game.
"Our toughness was really good when (Berger) went out, and it took us a minute I think including myself for everybody to sort of get their bearings and get our head wrapped around not having Grace out there, but I loved our fight," Moren said.
The fight will continue and only get tougher as the No. 5 Hoosiers will take on No. 6 UNC Thursday evening at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
"(Berger) provides wisdom and experience, and she can talk to those guys still in practice and on the bench and just provide all that advice plus enthusiasm, energy," Moren said.
"Grace is so passionate about this game. She loves it. I know it's killing her that she's not going to be able to participate tomorrow night."
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