Freshman's injury causes Curry to shuffle lineup

By Kyle Charters
Senior Writer

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — With their point guard out for the season with a knee injury, the biggest question regarding the Boilers on Sunday dealt with how they would adjust.

Purdue coach Kristy Curry had an answer — center Camille Cooper would start at point guard.

"No, I’m kidding," said Curry. "Actually Kelly Komara will move to the one. And that’s something we feel very comfortable about because Kelly played at the one the entire season last year."

Third-seeded Purdue (29-6) plays No. 4 seed Xavier (31-2) in the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament in Birmingham-Jefferson Arena. The winner moves on to the Final Four in St. Louis.

Komara replaces freshman Erika Valek, who tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee late in the Boilers’ 74-72 victory over Texas Tech in the Mideast Regional semifinals on Saturday.

"I kind of went through the growing pains last year as sort of being a rookie even though it was my sophomore year," said Komara. "I think we’re going to be just fine. When one person falls, everybody else just picks her back up. And Erika’s going to be on the sideline, cheering for us. We’re going to just go out there and play to win for her."

With Valek out of the starting lineup, fellow freshman Shereka Wright moves in. The forward, who is averaging 9.6 points per game, has started four games this season. In those four games, Wright averaged 11.8 points per contest, including a career-high 25 points against Michigan on Feb. 4.

"I just want to go out there and help my team any way I can," said Wright. "I have all the confidence in the world in my teammates that they will help me through the game. I’m just going to go out there and step up and play."

Curry said the Boilers’ depth this season should help them overcome Valek’s injury. After having a limited bench last season, Purdue signed five freshmen, including Valek and Wright, to join this year’s squad.

"We are blessed," said Purdue guard Katie Douglas. "I think you saw it when I went down earlier in the year against Michigan; Shereka stepped right in for me. Last year at this time if this would have happened to last year’s team, we probably would have been in a world of hurt because we didn’t have that kind of depth."

Douglas said losing Valek will hinder the Boilers. But, she said, they should be able to adjust.

"Like Coach Curry said, we’ve been interchanging all year," said Douglas. "So at different times you’ve seen lineups where Kelly’s been playing the one or myself or Shinika (Parks) and we’ve handled it very well. We’ve had that experience. We have all the confidence in Kelly, and we know she’s going to go out and play a good game for us (tonight)."

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