In a women's college basketball season that has been plagued by injuries, the Davidson College women's team has now been forced to cancel the rest of their season, because they didn't have enough healthy players to field a team.
A few days ago, the Davidson College women's basketball team announced that it was canceling the remainder of its 2023-24 season, due to a "significant number of injuries."
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Davidson women's basketball cancels remainder of 2023-24 season.https://t.co/AJmVzLz8sK
— Davidson Basketball (@DavidsonWBB) March 1, 2024
This unfortunate decision comes at the heels of Davidson's 45-40 loss during their senior night last Wednesday, where the Wildcats only had seven available players for the game. Davidson — who defeated Duke in Durham earlier this season — also had to forfeit the two games prior to that senior night contest, due to a lack of available players.
The cancelation not only meant that Davidson forfeited their last game of the regular season against Saint Louis, but it also means they wont't play in any postseason tournaments.
In a statement on the cancelation, Davidson Athletic Director Chris Clunie said, "The physical, mental and emotional toll of this unfortunate and injury-riddled season has brought us to this point. We are incredibly saddened that we cannot finish out the season strong but feel this is the best decision for our scholar-athletes."
This decision is especially upsetting, considering that Davidson — who is best known for NBA legend Steph Curry having played there from 2006-2009 — finished the season with an 18-8 record; marking their best winning percentage (.692) since 2006-07.
"Despite the challenging nature of the way this season has unfolded, our team never wavered and competed to the very end," Davidson head coach Gayle Fulks said in the team statement. "I am confident there is no team in the country that would have handled the hardship we faced with as much grace, strength and adaptability as our young women did. I am so proud of them."
Davidson isn't the only women's NCAA team that succumbed to an injury bug this season. UConn has suffered a slew of injuries that will make it difficult for them to contend for a national championship this year, like they seem to do every season.
In January, the TCU women's team asked random students to try out for their roster, after they had to forfeit games due to an astounding amount of injuries.
Although this season ended in a bitter note for Davidson, hopefully they can take any confidence their 18-8 season accrued into a less injury-ridden campaign next year.
