The Arizona State women's basketball team has canceled its games against No. 10 Utah and Colorado due to not having enough healthy scholarship players. The games were officially forfeited and will not be made up.
"We came to the conclusion after meeting with our doctors and medical staff we will not be making the trip to Utah and Colorado this weekend. We understand the games will be forfeited, but the reality is there was no decision to be made," Arizona State coach Natasha Adair said in a statement. "With few healthy scholarship players time to heal is our only option. Our plan is to get our team healthy over the course of this week and be ready when we host Arizona Jan. 22."
The Pac-12 conference requires at least seven scholarship players available, and although the Sun Devils did not specify which players are out at the moment, the team has been dealing with multiple injuries. Among those injured are Isadora Sousa, Maggie Besselink, Imogen Greenslade, Morasha Wiggins and Jaylah Robinson. It's been a tough season for ASU, as the team holds a 7-11 record and has lost all seven of its conference games so far.
"We feel terribly for our team that wants to compete, but due to the medical circumstances we are not able to. Admittedly this is a very unusual situation, one that requires us keeping the health of both injured and healthy players as the main focus," ASU Vice President for University Athletics Ray Anderson said in a statement.
If enough scholarship players are healthy, the Sun Devils will host in-state rival Arizona on Jan. 22 for their second encounter of the season. The Wildcats won the last meeting, 84-66, on Dec. 29.
Arizona State is not the only team dealing with injury issues. The UConn Huskies are having their second straight injury-plagued season and had to postpone their game against DePaul, which was originally scheduled for Jan. 8.
