It may be a breakout year for the women’s basketball team, but one veteran player is stuck in the same unfortunate nightmare.
Senior forward DeTrina White suffered a stress fracture in her right foot in the second half of Sunday’s 82-72 defeat at No. 9 Arkansas. It is an injury to the same foot that forced her to redshirt the full year last season.
White had surgery on Tuesday night to correct the problem. Doctors placed a screw in the bone to help it heal. She is out indefinitely. Her return toward the end of the season is possible, but not probable.
Head coach Sue Gunter said White came down on another player’s foot. At first, she thought White just rolled an ankle, but Gunter said she knew it was more severe than that.
“There’s just absolutely no way you can describe what DeTrina White has had to go through,” Gunter said. “She’s an outstanding talent. For whatever reason, she’s had the misfortune of having some extraordinary things happen to her.”
White was averaging 9.3 points per game and 8.1 rebounds per game, which led the team, while starting in 15 of the team’s 16 games this season. She also was very active on defense, grabbing six steals against Kentucky last Thursday, and leading the team in blocks with 21.
Injuries are nothing new to the 5-foot-11-inch native of Lafayette. She also missed 11 games her junior season (2000-01) with a misaligned vertebrate. Her back problems continued into what was thought to be her senior year last year, but it was the stress fracture that ultimately ended White’s season and forced her to take a medical redshirt.
Junior point guard Temeka Johnson said White has persevered through it all.
“When I first got here, she wasn’t really playing,” Johnson said. “I always said before I got here, I was excited to play [with her]. To see her go through the adversity she’s gone through, it’s almost unbelievable and impossible to believe that one person goes through all that.”
Junior shooting guard Doneeka Hodges said it “goes without saying” how big of a loss White is to the team on the court.
“That’s a given,” Hodges said. “Everybody that watches DeTrina, including the players that go against her in practice — she’s a huge part of our success. For us to lose her, I think that’s a big blow for us.”
The Lady Tigers are prepared to finish the season without White.
“I don’t think we have much of a choice,” Hodges said. “We can’t decide if she’s going to be back or not. She has to do what is best for her.”
Johnson said the team has to take White’s absence one day at a time.
“It’s similar to what happened last year — we had to overcome adversity,” Johnson said. “DeTrina is a big part of the team that will be missing, and everybody will have to step up their game a notch.”
Gunter said she would not count White out just yet.
“Going into the Arkansas game she was the healthiest she’s ever been,” Gunter said. “She’s got so much inner strength that it wouldn’t surprise me — that if we’re fortunate to get into the postseason — to see her on the floor, number twenty-three, again.”