Aside from losing to the 22nd-ranked Washington Huskies on Tuesday night, the Long Beach State men’s basketball team received a major blow to an already thin rotation.
Junior Larry Anderson, the 49ers’ third-best scorer with an average of 11.7 points per game, broke his left hand while attempting to make a play around the basket early in the second half of the 102-75 loss.
“It happened on a rebound and he was trying to box a guy out and got his hand caught in the kid’s jersey,” LBSU head coach Dan Monson said via cell phone Wednesday afternoon.
Monson added that “it wouldn’t be fair to speculate” on a timetable on Anderson’s return, but a press release stated that the Long Beach native would be out for a few weeks.
The injury that 6-foot-5 Anderson suffered was to his non-shooting hand. He was expected to see a doctor on Wednesday at 2 p.m., according to Monson.
The third-year head coach said there is not a set replacement for Anderson, but that fellow junior and starter Eugene Phelps would be considered an option to move to the small forward position. Monson added that 6-foot-5, 200-pound senior Tristan Wilson, a reserve, is another possibility.
“It’s going to be game to game, team to team,” Monson said. “It’s an opportunity to let the bench grow.”
It’s latest injury to hit LBSU, which played Washington without reserve forward Edis Dervisevic (sprained arch). The 6-foot-8 transfer has been sidelined since suffering the injury Nov. 19 against Clemson in the Virgin Islands at the Paradise Jam.
The 49ers are set to host BYU-Hawaii on Thursday at 7:05 p.m. at the Walter Pyramid.
Assistant Sports Editor Tracy McDannald contributed to this report.
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