UCLA sophomore small forward Tyler Honeycutt suffered a sprained right shoulder in the Bruins’ 75-59 win over Montana State on Tuesday at Pauley Pavilion and will miss tonight’s matchup at 7:30 p.m. against UC Irvine, but tests for further damage were negative, UCLA head coach Ben Howland said on Wednesday.
Honeycutt collided with Bobcat big man Cody Anderson in the second half and grimaced in pain, but Howland said X-rays, included a weighted X-ray, and an MRI revealed no extensive damage.
Freshman Tyler Lamb will start in Honeycutt’s place after playing his best game of the season against Montana State, finishing with eight points and three assists in 20 minutes.
“It’s not a long-term thing, which is what I’m happy about,” Howland said. “I’m obviously not happy that he got hurt and wont be able to play tomorrow.”
Howland said Honeycutt, who leads the Bruins in scoring at 14.9 points per game, would hopefully be back for the team’s Pac-10 opener against Washington State on Dec. 29.
The Sylmar product played a major factor in UCLA’s up-down-up win over the Bobcats on Tuesday.
The Bruins (7-4) were up by 15 early before allowing Montana State to take its first lead with 16 minutes, 55 seconds left in the contest. A short time later, Honeycutt scored six of his nine points during a three-minute spurt, and the Bruins went from three behind to five ahead in a matter of minutes.
Honeycutt, though, ran into Anderson with 8:20 left in the game and was pulled, not to return.
“He was trailing an offensive player, defending, ran into their big Anderson, and hit shoulder-to-shoulder,” Howland said. “Lot of times, you worry about shoulder injuries when guys go up and get their arms yanked. It was nothing like that. It was shoulder-to-shoulder, ran into the guy, and hit it just right.”
In comes Lamb, who played his biggest minute total since game three and drew his coach’s praise. The freshman out of Mater Dei had two impressive dunks, including a steal and coast-to-coast slam, and a key steal with 2.3 seconds left in the first half that led to two free throws.
“I thought Tyler Lamb played very good,” Howland said. “He played solid taking care of the ball, three assists one turnover. He’s going to play a lot more tomorrow.”