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Adversity Takes Sooners to New Heights
January 20, 2012 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 20, 2012
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By Andrew Gilman / SoonerSports.com
NORMAN, Okla. -- Just for a second, coach Sherri Coale looked up and wondered if the scoreboard was going to fall on her.
After all, what else could go wrong?
The setting was Tuesday night in Manhattan, Kan., and just one day earlier the Sooners had lost starting forward Joanna McFarland with a broken jaw.
Now this?
Trainer Carolynn Loon walked into the locker room a few moments before tipoff and Coale said, "Seriously?"
"She never comes in," Coale said. "If she walks in that means something bad has happened."
And this one sounded bad. Loon suspected starting guard Aaryn Ellenberg had possibly suffered a fracture to her ring finger on her right hand. They were going to tape it up but Ellenberg couldn't even catch the ball, not to mention, shoot it.
"You never want to say, 'What more could happen?" Coale said. "But that's what your mind is thinking."
Coale's mind might have been thinking the worst, but her eyes saw something different. Ellenberg was sensational, leading the Sooners to a 66-57 victory at Kansas State, scoring 31 points, making all five of her 3-pointers in the first half and making seven of her first eight shots. Meanwhile, she added nine steals.
"She made her first 3-pointer and we just laughed," Coale said. "It's a crazy game."
Ellenberg said she was catching a pass before the game as the team warmed up and her finger jammed. She said she heard a pop.
"It hurt, but it didn't hurt where I couldn't play," Ellenberg said. "I didn't think it was broken."
Meanwhile, she didn't talk to Coale about it and Coale didn't talk to Ellenberg about it. No doubt, both thought: She was going to play.
Too valuable to not at least give it a try. Ellenberg is the Big 12's third-leading scorer at 18.4 points per game. She's second in the conference in steals with 3.4 and shooting 44 percent on 3-pointers this season, including 53 percent during Big 12 play. With two fingers taped together, she'll lead the Sooners against Texas at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Lloyd Noble Center.
"It never crossed my mind she wouldn't play," Coale said. "She's just a tough kid and has played with injuries that no one knows about. She is able to focus and compartmentalize when game time comes. You can see with the way she plays she's a competitor and you can see how much she cares about her team. She was bound and determined to lead us to a victory in Manhattan. I had a feeling she was going to play. Hurt or not."
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