It was the one thing Arizona wanted to avoid this week, but now it's the reality. Starting point guard Kerr Kriisa appeared to clip the back heel of Stanford forward Spencer Jones while attempting to land leading to the sophomore rolling his ankle. Kriisa went down to the ground in immediate pain and had to be assisted off the court by the Arizona training staff.
UA was up three points at the time and looked to be on its way to another victory at the time, but the Wildcats were forced to finish the rest of the close matchup with the Cardinal without Kriisa.
Eventually, UA secured an 84-80 win to advance to the semifinal round of the Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas, but much of the attention after the game was on Kriisa and his status heading into the rest of the postseason
Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd couldn't provide an update on the injury in his postgame press conference other than that Kriisa suffered a sprained ankle. Lloyd says he will meet with the training staff to receive an update on serious the injury could potentially be for UA's starting point guard.
"I have no idea the severity of it or anything like that," Lloyd said. "Obviously, it's a quick turnaround so it'll be tough. We'll just play it by ear. ... I gotta talk to my trainer after this, and we'll see. I'm not making any of those calls right now."
The Wildcats will play either Oregon or Colorado on Friday night in the semifinal matchup at T-Mobile Arena.
Kriisa was seen in a wheelchair leaving the Arizona locker room after Thursday's game, but seemed to be in good spirits making light of his injury with a social media post after the game.
"Kerr means a lot to the team," UA sophomore guard Benn Mathurin said after Thursday's win. "He's a starting point guard, and he has a great impact on the team. And we play well when he's here. But whatever happens will happen, but we hope he's going to be back pretty soon because we need him."
Should he not be able to play for an extended period, the Wildcats will have to figure out who will run the show from the point guard position in place of Kriisa. Senior Justin Kier has served as the primary backup for Kriisa throughout the season while starting guard Dalen Terry is capable of handling the ball and directing the offense.
Terry is second on the team this season with 3.9 assists per game. If the Wildcats opt to allow Terry to run the point guard position, Lloyd could insert Pac-12 Sixth Man of the Year Pelle Larsson into the lineup giving the team some more length on the perimeter.
Both Larsson and Kier have made only two starts this season for the Wildcats.
Kriisa finished Thursday's win with 10 points and a game-high five rebounds in 33 minutes for Arizona.
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