Shaquala Williams the Oregon women’s basketball team’s star point guard, will miss the entire 2000-01 season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee, an MRI revealed Monday.
Williams sustained the season-ending injury in a pickup game on Saturday, Oregon Athletic Department officials said. Surgery is tentatively scheduled for Friday at Sacred Heart Medical Center. Rehabilitation will take six to nine months.
A sophomore last season, Williams led the Ducks to a 23-8 record and a second straight Pacific-10 Conference title. She was the team’s high scorer and assist leader with 17.7 points and 4.4 dishes per game, en route to Pacific-10 Conference Player of the Year and Honorable Mention All-America honors.
“I realize that injuries are part of the game, and I had to learn that the hard way,” Williams said in a released statement. “I have complete confidence in our athletic training staff that they will allow me to recover as soon as possible. I also have confidence in my team and I think they’ll have a great year.”
Williams played as a true freshman in 1998-99 and will use this season as her medical redshirt year. She will have two seasons of eligibility remaining.
“Obviously, we’ll miss Shaquala and we’ll be there for her while she’d going through this difficult process,” Oregon head coach Jody Runge said. “We also know she’ll be there for us.”
Before the injury, Oregon would have been returning all but one of last season’s starting five.
But the Ducks are suddenly faced with problems at the point. Reserve point guard Karen Piers quit the team and returned to her hometown of Nova Scotia, Canada during the summer, leaving sophomore Kourtney Shreve as Oregon’s most potent point guard.
“Unfortunately, these things happen in athletics,” Runge said. “I have every confidence in this team coming together through this adversity and finding the good in this situation.”