Playing through pain

  • By Mike Allende / Herald Writer
  • Thursday, March 1, 2007 9:00pm
  • Sports

SEATTLE – Andrea Plouffe’s numbers aren’t incredibly different than they were a year ago. But they’ve been a whole lot more difficult to come by this season.

The junior center for the University of Washington has spent the 2006-2007 campaign struggling to simply move around on knees plagued by severe tendinitis. The pain has caused Plouffe to sit out most every practice this season and forced her to miss three games. And as the Huskies prepare for the postseason, Plouffe faces her biggest challenge.

If Washington wins out in the Pacific-10 Conference Tournament, Plouffe will have played three games in three days. Add to that the ruggedness of the NCAA Tournament, and Plouffe’s knees are in for a struggle.

Washington (18-11), seeded fourth, faces fifth-seeded USC (16-12) in a quarterfinal game at 7:15 p.m. Saturday at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif.

Sore knees or not, Plouffe, a 6-foot-2 junior from Edmonton, Alberta, said she’s prepared to do her part to help the Huskies get deep into the postseason.

“Whatever I have to do, I’m going to do,” Plouffe said.

Washington coach June Daugherty is confident that Plouffe will play as hard as possible for the rest of the season.

“Knowing her and the way she plays, she’ll find a way,” Daugherty said. “This is a very competitive kid that loves to compete. There’s so much on the line (and) it’s a great opportunity for her.”

Plouffe’s scoring (10.3 points a game) is about the same as it was last season (10.7), but she’s playing two minutes less a game this season and her shooting percentage has dropped from 42.8 to 37.3 and her rebounding average has fallen from 4.3 to 3.7 a game.

Although Daugherty said Plouffe has been able to practice more lately, the center’s most recent game numbers show a decline in her offensive productivity. Plouffe has scored in double figures in just two of her past nine games and is averaging 7.8 points on 34.9 percent shooting in that time.

There’s no question her game has been affected by her knees, Plouffe said.

“I can’t jump, I can’t get down the court as fast as I’d like to,” Plouffe said. “Sometimes my legs give out on me. If my legs were strong, this year would be a different story.”

Knee pain is nothing new for Plouffe. She missed nearly her entire senior season of high school after knee surgery, and she is scheduled to have more surgery at the end of this season. Still, she was the surprise of the team last season, finishing second on the Huskies in scoring after averaging just 1.6 points as a freshman. She was expected to complement Cameo Hicks this season but her production isn’t where she’d like it to be, although she’s second to Hicks in scoring again.

“Of course it’s frustrating,” Plouffe said. “But I understand this is how it’s going to be until I have surgery.”

“This missed practice time is a residual thing,” Daugherty said. “It keeps adding up.”

Although Plouffe still isn’t really able to practice, she has increased her work in the pool and on the exercise bike and continues to get daily treatment. She also shed her bulky knee braces in favor of thinner braces that she hopes helps her mobility. If so, Washington’s offense could get a boost and so could its hopes of a decent tournament run.

“It hurts no matter what,” Plouffe said. “Nothing I’m going to do right now is going to make it better or worse, so I’m just going to go out and go as hard as I can. That’s all I can do for now.”

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