In an otherwise mediocre contest between Oregon and Washington on Thursday night, the question on everybody’s lips concerned a finger.
Luke Jackson’s severely lacerated, blood-spurting ring finger, to be exact.
Jackson, attempting a steal late in the first half of the Ducks’ 91-66 victory, got his right ring finger (on his non-shooting hand) somehow caught in the jersey of Husky forward Doug Wrenn. Jackson was whisked away right after the game, and nobody else was quite sure how it happened, but two things are for certain.
First, Jackson needed 10-12 stitches on the bottom of his right ring finger, but was healthy enough to return to the Oregon bench with his hand bandaged and his arm in a sling. Second, he will miss Saturday’s game. Anything after that is up in the air.
“The cut was three-quarters of the way around the base of his ring finger, and the area where it’s at meant there was a lot of blood,” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said. “We’re just thankful it wasn’t worse.”
Nobody knows exactly how it happened, except for, perhaps, Jackson himself. Wrenn said he hardly even felt Jackson bump into him, and that he didn’t think his fingernail caused the cut.
“Hopefully, he’ll bounce back,” Wrenn said. “I didn’t feel anything; he probably got caught on my jersey.”
Kent said he didn’t know how it happened, either.
“He just jammed his hand in there; who knows exactly how?” Kent said. “The good news is it didn’t hit a tendon or a nerve.”
Andre Joseph will start Saturday’s game in place of Jackson, and Kent wasn’t sure whether Jackson will be back for next week’s contests at UCLA and USC.
“Everybody moves up,” Kent said of Saturday’s rotation. “This will be an opportunity for us to show our depth.”
Jackson’s finger bled profusely at first, and he was ushered off the court quickly by assistant athletic trainer Clay Jamieson, who wrapped Jackson’s hand in a towel. Jackson came back midway through the second frame, but he didn’t play. He received an ovation when he returned to the Oregon bench.
Jackson’s injury could have been a distraction for the Ducks, who were leading 38-14 when he left the game with 5:52 left in the first half. On the previous possession, Jackson made a steal and took it the length of the court for a lay-in.
“We could sit there and let our minds race, but the key thing was to remain focused and remain calm, and this team did a great job of that,” Kent said.
The Ducks did remain calm, and kept the lead where it was until halftime, before blowing the game open in the second half. They even got the approval of Washington coach Lorenzo Romar.
“I’ve talked to Ernie Kent about his team, and the one thing he always talks about is the character of the team,” Romar said. “That’s what you saw tonight. You saw the character of this team.
“They didn’t fall apart, they came together.”
Jackson ended the game with four points, three assists and two steals in 12 minutes of floor time.
Kent said he was shocked, as everyone in McArthur Court was, when Jackson’s injury occurred. After the game, he was reflective of the Ducks’ ability to avoid injury this year. Brian Helquist missed a handful of games with an injured shoulder, but for the most part the Ducks have been injury-free.
Oregon and Washington State will square off at 6 p.m. Saturday at Mac Court.