| BG’s Lauren Prochaska (right) dives on the floor for a loose ball while teammate Tracy Pontius (5) looks on in a game earlier this season. (Photo: Andrew Weber/Sentinel-Tribune) |
With three weeks remaining in the regular season, every team in the nation has players battling through
bumps and bruises.
For Bowling Green’s women’s basketball team it’s a more serious situation as Lauren Prochaska, the
all-time leading scorer in school history, is fighting a foot problem. And her running mate, Tracy
Pontius is working through a significant knee contusion bruise and a hamstring problem.
“Lauren Prochaska has been in a protective boot since the game last Saturday,” BG head coach Curt Miller
said Thursday. “We are anticipating for her to practice for the first time today (Thursday) a little bit
and see how she feels.”
The injury is to Prochaska’s left foot. The team did not practice Sunday or Monday and Prochaska did not
participate in Tuesday or Wednesday’s drills. Miller expected Prochaska to only participate in
half-court drills Thursday.
“I’m certainly not a doctor, but we don’t want it to turn into a stress fracture in her foot. It’s on her
upper foot,” Miller said. “It’s more of a stress reaction and it’s going to take time to heal. We
obviously don’t have a lot of time.
“Being in a weight-bearing boot where it protects her outside of basketball activities, trying to keep
her off the foot as much as possible now for the rest of the season, is kind of the practice that we
have in place.”
Miller said he couldn’t pinpoint when the injury occurred, but that it had been a problem for three-plus
weeks.
“We have had Lauren for very few full practices over the last three weeks. We have tried to manage the
pain, manage her minutes practiced, so we could get her through games,” Miller said.
“She’s never complained about it. She’s a warrior. It was nice to see her last home game against Ball
State put together a nice game, because I know she’s hurting. But at least it gives her some confidence
that she can step back up and have good games,” Miller added.
As for Pontius, she had been hampered by the knee problem for the last few weeks.”
“She has been significantly affected by it with her speed and her ability to change pace and change
direction,” Miller said. “It’s the lateral quickness that has really bothered her.
“She is playing through it, but certainly is not near 100 percent and I think that anyone who has watched
Tracy through the years can see where she’s affected the most (is that) she’s lost a step of quickness
and explosiveness,” Miller continued. “It’s hurting her at the offensive end trying to get the
penetration we require out of our offensive sets, and certainly her lateral quickness has been effected
guarding the quick, athletic guards in our league over the last couple of week.”
Prochaska is averaging 18.6 points and 6.1 rebounds per game. Pontius is averaging 11.5 points and 3.8
assists per game.
Bowling Green plays at Eastern Michigan Saturday with tipoff at 2 p.m.
