The UL women’s basketball team will play Spring Hill College in an exhibition Wednesday and then open the regular season at 5 p.m. Monday against Houston in the Cajundome.
Coach Garry Brodhead’s club will be doing so with heavy hearts because of the loss of senior guard Brandi Williams to a season-ending knee injury that occurred in a team scrimmage.
“She did a jump stop and when she did the jump stop, the defense was right there, so she tried to turn and when she turned, it popped her knee,” Brodhead said.
It was especially hard on Williams because she had rehabbed for almost a year since suffering a knee injury in the fourth game of last season.
“It was kind of tough,” Brodhead said. “I hadn’t cried in too many of the times when my kids got hurt. The last one I cried is when Blair (Brodhead) got hurt her senior year. Man, this one hurts.
“The thing about Brandi is being hurt last year and then coming back – she wasn’t at 100%, she was at 110%. That’s how hard she worked during the summer. To see a kid put all that time in and it can just go like that, it’s tough, really tough.”
Among the potential replacements are 5-8 sophomore transfer Nubia Benedith from North Florida and 5-8 redshirt freshman Jaylyn James.
“The thing that Brandi brings is she can also defend,” Brodhead said. “It’s hard to find shooters that can really defend like we want.
“Jaylyn will take some time on the defensive side. Nubia is pretty close. She comes from North Florida, so she’s played Division I basketball before.”
Williams was a second-team preseason all-Sun Belt selection.
“She’ll still be part of what we do,” Brodhead said. “She’s a great leader. We’ll utilize her leadership to help us find somebody else to kind of fill in or a couple people to fill in.”
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