Trey Zeigler injures lower back jumping into Buffalo's bench
The Central Michigan men’s basketball team’s leading scorer only played 15 minutes Wednesday night against Buffalo at McGuirk Arena.
Sophomore Trey Zeigler injured his lower back trying to save the ball from going out-of-bounds at the 5:39 minute mark in the first half.
He was slow to get up after barreling through Buffalo’s bench and into the stands.
“He was playing with great passion and effort,” head coach Ernie Zeigler said. “It’s a play that we definitely want him and everyone on our team to attempt to try and make from a hustle standpoint.”
Trey came back briefly, but was quickly pulled to be re-evaluated.
“When it first happened, we tried to put him back out there to see if he could move — and then he couldn’t there at the end of the first-half,” Ernie said.
He received more treatment at halftime and tried to make a comeback in the second half. He played 30 more seconds before exiting the game.
“We tried, but he just couldn’t move,” Ernie said. “Him moving is a huge part of his game, particularly on the offensive end.”
The extent of his injury is not yet known.
Trey finished with four points, three assists and shot 2-3 from the field.
The Chippewas trailed 23-21 at the time of his injury, but managed to pull within one with 3:45 remaining in the second-half.
“It was just about the next guy up," Ernie said. "We got down by 11 and we just talked about how everyone’s got to tap into a greater power within yourself and we had numerous guys do that."
He was pleased with how the team responded after Trey’s injury, but believes Buffalo’s size advantage played a vital role in the outcome of the game.
“For as hard as we fought, our lack of depth up front just really hurt us in not being able to have the bodies or get the production we needed from a defensive rebounding standpoint, particularly after we lost our leading rebounder (Trey),” Ernie said.
