One of the top women’s college basketball teams in the country is going to be playing without one of their starters for the foreseeable future.
During No. 7 Kentucky’s win on Sunday over Missouri, senior forward Teonni Key dislocated her elbow. On his radio show this week, second-year head coach Kenny Brooks said that Key “should return” this season.
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“We don’t have a prognosis right now. They say all things look pretty good,” Brooks said. “It could be a couple of weeks, it could be a little longer.”
A 6-foot-5 native of Cary, North Carolina, injuries have plagued Key’s college basketball career. Ranked as the ninth-best prospect in 2021 by ESPN, Key missed all of what would have been her freshman season at North Carolina when she tore the ACL in her right knee in a preseason exhibition against South Carolina. She then missed a chunk of the 2023-24 season as a redshirt sophomore with a foot injury.
Key earned a starting role under Brooks when she transferred to Kentucky before the start of last season and has emerged a crucial component to the Wildcats’ success. She’s averaging 11 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.4 blocks a game this season while shooting a career-best 54.9% from the floor.
She was a big reason why the Wildcats were able to pull off an upset win at LSU last week, totaling 17 points and 16 rebounds in Kentucky’s first victory in Baton Rouge since 2019. After that game, Brooks said Key has been “nursing a little ailment with her lower leg situation all year long.”
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“The focus was just toughness and just going hard,” Key said after beating LSU. “That’s my mentality. Just go and get the ball.”
Kentucky will have to find someone else to do that while Key is out. The Wildcats’ schedule doesn’t get any easier as they visit Alabama on Thursday and host No. 5 Oklahoma on Sunday.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Top SEC women’s basketball team loses key starter to injury
