Bad news for the Gopher women's basketball team.
Leading scorer, junior Mara Braun, is out indefinitely after breaking the same bone in her foot that she broke last year. That injury last year required surgery and ended her sophomore year in January.
Braun is a junior from Wayzata. Gopher Coach Dawn Plitzuweit says they will meet with specialists and it's too premature to say when she might be back. The injury happened during a shootaround accoring to Plitzuweit.
"Obviously the most important thing is her long term health, and then getting her back to playing at the highest level that she was playing at," Plitzuweit told reporters Friday. "She's a fantastic player so right now, meeting with a specialist and all those types of things."
Plitzuweit says after those meetings they'll determine if Braun can return this year or beyond. The Gophers are off to a 6-0 record so far this season so it's really a blow to a team that was on a trajectory to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2018.
Braun came into the year with some high expectations. She came into the 2023-24 season as a preseason all-big ten pick and despite playing just 20 games, was an All-Big Ten Honorable Mention. She was the Big Ten’s top returning three-point shooter, having averaged 2.9 makes from distance per contest in 2023-24, and the conference’s second-highest returning scorer at 17 points per game.
She was leading the Gophers in scoring this season averaging 13.6 points per game. She also averages 4.0 assists per game.