The Pirates defeated the Maine Black Bears, 76-49, on Wednesday night at the Prudential Center, but lost one of their starters to a foot injury.
Junior forward Patrik Auda, who was starting in place of injured sophomore forward Brandon Mobley, was injured on a layup in the first half. According to head coach Kevin Willard, Auda may be out for the rest of the season.
"Patrik more than likely is done," Willard said. "He broke his fifth metatarsal. We don't know that for sure, but we'll have to see after the X-ray tomorrow."
Auda was aggressive on the evening scoring eight points on 4-5 shooting, while grabbing five rebounds in just 14 minutes of action. He was averaging 7.5 points per game, grabbing 3.0 rebounds and dishing out 1.5 assists per contest.
Junior forward Fuquan Edwin said the loss of Auda will be a rough one, especially after the loss of Mobley in the game against Washington.
"That's pretty tough," Edwin said. "But again people are gunna have to step up. Coach will do his job making plays for them."
Willard said that if the injury is as serious as it seems, then Auda would be able to make his return in March, making Willard consider the option of redshirting.
"I wouldn't bring him back at that point," Willard said. "I'd definitely redshirt him. No matter what, we're going to have to adjust dramatically Patrik was playing well."
Edwin finished with 15 points, six rebounds and six assists.
"I started out slow on defense," Edwin said. "But toward the end I picked it up."
The other story of the night was Aaron Cosby. The sophomore guard led the Hall with a game-high 19 points on 7-14 shooting, and 4-9 from beyond the arc.
"I thought AC looked much more confident in his body in his ability to attack," Willard said. "I thought he looked a lot better defensively, which I was happy about."
Willard said that he and Cosby had a conversation about Cosby getting back to working hard.
"AC and I had a great conversation yesterday about what made him such a great player: he worked harder than anyone this summer," Willard said.
Cosby suffered a sprained PCL in the offseason, and missed the team's opener.
"My knee is fine, just need to get back into game shape," Cosby said. "I was in the gym three times before the game."
As for his progress, Cosby said he is starting to feel better about his play.
"I feel like I'm getting there," Cosby said. "Before the injury I was playing at a high level, but the injury set me back a little. I'm trying to be versatile in scoring and running the offense."
What was so tough for Cosby was that this was his first injury, but said he sees a positive stemming from it.
"I've never been injured before. I was really heartbroken...In the long run, it will make me stronger mentally."
T.J. Brennan can be reached at Thomas.Brennan@student.shu.edu.
