Dana Altman provides injury update on Oregon guard Jackson Shelstad
The No. 11-seeded Oregon Ducks gave the No. 3 Creighton Bluejays all they could handle Saturday in Pittsburgh.
But the shorthanded Ducks ran out of gas during the second overtime period of the evening and saw their season end with an 86-73 loss. With 2:10 left in regulation, standout freshman guard Jackson Shelstad went back to the Oregon locker room with an apparent knee injury.
He later returned to the UO sideline with a heavily taped knee but was not able to take the floor during either overtime period. Shelstad finished the game with seven points, four rebounds, and one steal in 37 minutes.
While speaking with reporters afterward, head coach Dana Altman provided an update on the Ducks’ star freshman.
“Jackson going down with I think four minutes in the game left, he’s got a knee sprain,” Altman said. “And I hope it’s not serious, but he couldn’t move. And we thought about putting him back in, but he just wasn’t moving. And I didn’t want to take a chance if it’s partially torn or something. I didn’t want to take a chance.”
With Shelstad sidelined, Oregon was down to just seven scholarship players.
In addition to Shelstad, Nate Bittle (illness), Keeshawn Barthelemy (ankle), Jesse Zarzuela (foot), and Mookie Cook (foot) have all been sidelined for the majority of the season.
Oregon center N’Faly Dante played 48 minutes for the Ducks on Saturday, and Jermaine Couisnard played 45. The duo of star seniors combined to score every one of the Ducks’ second-half points and finished the evening with 28 and 32 points, respectively.
“You know, I felt bad for Dante and Jermaine just to put such a load on them,” Altman said. “Just would have been nice to get them some help and prepared our other guys to step up a little bit more. And that’s on me, too. So we really put a lot on Jermaine there late. He had to do everything. When Jackson went down, we had no other ball handlers. And he tried to fight through it. But just came up a little short.”
