Dawn Staley extends support to UConn’s Paige Bueckers after injury news

Dawn Staley took to Twitter to extend support for UConn basketball’s Paige Bueckers on Wednesday, as the Huskies announced that the star guard would miss the entire 2022-23 season.

Bueckers tore her ACL while playing a pickup basketball game, the team announced.

Staley tweeted a message to her shortly after the news broke, encouraging her as she begins the rehab process.

“May God be the way maker he is to walk with Paige throughout her surgery, recovery, rehab and her future,” Staley wrote. “Stay faithful, Paige.”

South Carolina defeated the Huskies in the national championship game last season, a game in which Bueckers scored 14 points. The Gamecocks beat UConn in the Bahamas earlier in the season as well — Bueckers scored 19 points in that game.

The two teams were scheduled to play again in January, but the matchup was canceled so USC could reschedule a previously postponed SEC game.

South Carolina is scheduled to play UConn in Connecticut this season on Feb. 5.