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Injury bug bites BYU as starting guard injures ankle, starting forward to miss even more time with hamstring injury

Cal St Northridge BYU Basketball

AP photo

AP

Injuries are beginning to creep up on BYU as the team was already without starting senior forward Nate Austin. Senior guard Tyler Haws also left Saturday night’s Cougar win over Weber State as the nation’s third leading scorer sprained his left ankle in the second half and did not return to action.

Haws sustained the injury with 3:29 remaining in the game and had to be helped off of the floor without putting pressure on the injured ankle.

According to Jay Drew of the Salt Lake Tribune, BYU is saying Haws has a sprained ankle and he’ll have an MRI to look into further damage.

“We’re hoping it’s a sprain and we’ll get that checked out and find out and see how he can recover from that,” BYU head coach Dave Rose said of Haws after Saturday’s win. “We’ll probably have an MRI and we’ll be really cautious with this because ankles have not been good to us, so hopefully we can catch a break here.”

Austin has been battling a torn hamstring the last few days and it was originally reported that he would likely miss “at least two weeks” with the injury.

Things appear to be a little bit worse for the 6-foot-11 Austin as Greg Wrubell, BYU basketball’s play-by-play guy, spoke to head coach Dave Rose. Rose expects Austin to be out “at least probably three or four weeks, maybe longer.”

Players such as freshmen Isaac Nielson and Corbin Kaufusi should see more minutes as a result of Austin’s injury.

Austin’s injury was bad enough because of BYU’s limited front court depth but if Haws goes down for a few games, the Cougars will need to replace his dynamic scoring ability and rebounding from the guard spot. BYU still has seniors Kyle Collinsworth and Anson Winder but losing two additional senior starters might be tough in the short-term for the Cougars. Hopefully Haws’ injury isn’t serious and Austin’s prognosis improves.

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