Redshirt freshman Lyneé Belton will miss the rest of the season with a knee injury, the program announced via Twitter Tuesday afternoon, further depleting an already-thin Blue Devil frontcourt.
Belton was averaging 2.7 points and 3.0 rebounds in 10.6 minutes per game prior to the injury. She did not travel to Duke’s game Sunday at Wake Forest and will have surgery Thursday to repair a torn meniscus.
For the second straight year, Belton’s season ended abruptly, after the Clinton, Md., native tore the ACL in the same knee December 17, 2014 in a win against Oklahoma.
Graduate student Amber Henson, junior Oderah Chidom and sophomore Erin Mathias now stand as Duke’s only three healthy post players, but have combined for just 14.7 points per game. The Blue Devils’ leading scorer and rebounder—sophomore Azurá Stevens—has missed the past four games with a torn plantar fascia in her foot, and junior Kendall Cooper is not enrolled at Duke this semester.
Belton missed the first three games of the season, missed two games in mid-January due to an ankle injury and did not play against No. 3 Notre Dame Feb. 1.
The Blue Devils have dropped three of the four games Stevens has missed, and will now be depth-challenged for the rest of the season as they fight to secure an NCAA tournament berth. Duke has nine healthy players, with freshman guard Haley Gorecki sidelined since Jan. 3 by a hip injury.
Duke will try to break a three-game losing streak Thursday at Virginia Tech.
This story was updated at 10:30 p.m. with additional details about Belton's injury.
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