Huskies freshman Tiffany Hayes thought the worst when she banged knees with a Florida player in a pile up diving for a loose ball in the first half Tuesday. She struggled to get to her feet and needed to be helped off the court by team trainer Rosemary Ragle.
Hayes has been instrumental in helping her roommate Caroline Doty cope with a season-ending knee injury this season. Naturally, she initially thought something was significantly wrong with her right knee.
“I think that was probably mostly what it was is I was scared when I went down,’’ Hayes said. “So I was kind of panicking a little bit. It was just a scare for me that it was hurting like that and it was like I just had to walk it off and it was fine.’’
It turns out that’s all it was a scare. Hayes left the game with 9:46 left in the first half. She was tended to on the bench by Ragle and returned two minutes, 23 seconds later.
Hayes said she has been icing her knee and receiving electric stimulation treatments daily this week to ensure that there will be no further difficulties when top-seeded UConn faces fourth-seeded California in the Trenton regional semifinals today at Sovereign Bank Arena.
“It’s getting better and better every day,’’ Hayes said.
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