SALT LAKE CITY — The BYU women’s basketball team will have a big hole to fill next season.
The Cougars’ top returning scorer, sophomore Shaylee Gonzales, will miss the 2019-20 season with a torn ACL and lateral meniscus, she announced on Instagram Thursday.
“Never in a million years would I think that I’d be posting something like this. Today I will be going into surgery because I tore (my) ACL & lateral meniscus during practice this last Monday," Gonzales wrote.
Gonzales led the Cougars with a 17.0 points-per-game average as a freshman in the 2018-19 season, helping BYU post a 26-7 record and advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. She scored 17 points and had nine rebounds and three assists in BYU’s first-round NCAA win over Auburn, then led all scorers with 32 points in the Cougars’ loss to Stanford in the next round.
The 5-foot-10 guard out of Gilbert, Arizona, was named the West Coast Conference Newcomer of the Year last season and also averaged 5.6 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.9 steals per game.
“I know that God has a plan for each an every one of us, even if it goes in the opposite direction we want it to,” Gonzales wrote. “This will be one of the hardest things I go through, not playing the sport I love this next season but I am very motivated to get back on the court and come back even better. Thank you for all the support.”