Georgia Tech guard Josh Heath injured his ankle in the second half of the Yellow Jackets’ win over Division II Tusculum Tuesday night at McCamish Pavilion. Coach Josh Pastner did not know the severity of the injury following the game.
“We just pray that he’s O.K., so we’ll see in the next day or two,” Pastner said.
It was a most undesirable outcome for Tech to lose a critical player in a game that was well in hand at the time of the injury. Tech led 83-49 at the time of the injury. Heath, whom Pastner has described as the key to the team, subbed out at the 7:45 mark. Heath went into the game leading the team in assists with 75 and in recent games seemed to have found his stride running the team before an illness last week took him off his game.
Pastner said that he wanted to give Heath playing time Tuesday to regain his rhythm. Against Tusculum, he had six points, five assists, three rebounds, three steals and no turnovers.
“I pray that it’s very minor, but he needed to play,” Pastner said. “He needed to sweat things out and just be able to get back in rhythm. The unfortunate thing is I was only going to keep him in another 30 seconds anyway, but it’s just one of those things. And you just hope that he can maybe just miss a practice (Wednesday) and get back.”
Pastner said Heath suffered the injury stepping on another player.
Tech plays Boston College at home on Saturday at McCamish. Incidentally, Heath’s father Stan is an assistant coach for the Eagles.
Should Heath not be able to play, Pastner would have to adjust his starting lineup. The Tusculum game was Heath’s 10th start in a row after beginning the season coming off the bench. Guard Justin Moore, who started 18 of the first 19 games, has missed the past two games (including the Tusculum game) with an abdominal injury. Pastner said he believed that Moore would be available.
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