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Wyoming’s Luke Martinez out indefinitely with broken hand

Luke Martinez, Chase Tapley

Wyoming guard Luke Martinez lets a three point shot go over San Diego State ‘s Chase Tapley that tied the NCAA college basketball game in the final minute. San Diego State won 67-58 in overtime Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012 in San Diego. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi )

AP

Wyoming’s bid to stay undefeated just took a huge hit.

The Cowboys’ second leading scorer Luke Martinez broke his hand in an off-campus incident and is out indefinitely, according to Jason King of ESPN.com.

Wyo is 12-0 right now and Martinez is a big reason for it. He’s poured in 14.5 points per game so far in 30.5 minutes per game so far this season. The fifth-year senior guard also averages three rebounds per and was hitting 86-percent of his shots from the free throw line and was 42.2-percent from three.

With this, Larry Shyatt will have to rely even more on Leonard Washington and his 14.8 points per game, along with getting more out of Derrious Gilmore (12.5 ppg) and Larry Nance, Jr. (11.2 ppg). After that, the next-highest scorer fro Wyoming is Josh Adams’ 5.3 ppg.

But if there was one place the Cowboys could afford this, it’s at the guard spot. No one can replace the efficiency of Martinez, but Gilmore, Adams and Riley Grabau (5.1 ppg) are all guards who are capable of keeping the depth of the rotation, at least to an extent, sound. The Cowboys play SMU on Wednesday.

If there’s one thing to be worried about, really, it’s what is this “off-campus incident”? A fight? Could the authorities get/be involved? What was Martinez’s role in the incident?

The injury is definitely important, but equally as important are the details as to what this incident involves and if there’s any backlash that could also threaten whatever’s left of Martinez’s season if he comes back from the hand injury.

David Harten is a sportswriter and college basketball blogger. You can follow him on Twitter at @David_Harten.