Wrist Injury Might Put an End to Jones’ Basketball Season

Marion Jones of Thousand Oaks High, a standout basketball player and national-class sprinter, is expected to miss the rest of the girls’ basketball season after suffering a fractured left wrist and a dislocated jaw during a Marmonte League game at Simi Valley on Thursday night.

Jones hit the floor hard after being fouled in the third quarter of Thousand Oaks’ 83-46 victory.

Jones, who scored 10 points in the game, won state track titles in the girls’ 100 and 200 meters as a freshman and sophomore at Rio Mesa High. She transferred to Thousand Oaks in November.

The 5-foot-11 junior forward was taken to Simi Valley Adventist Hospital on Thursday night and fitted with a cast to her elbow. She also received six stitches in her chin before being released at about 10:30 p.m.

Jones is expected to wear the cast for six to eight weeks, according to Elliott Mason Jr., her personal track and field coach.

The Southern Section basketball playoffs begin Feb. 22 and conclude March 7. Even if Jones’ cast was removed after six weeks, it is doubtful that she would immediately begin playing again for the Lancers (12-1), the defending Division I-A champions. Jones is averaging 17.2 points and 10.1 rebounds a game.

“We’re planning on going on without her,” Lancer basketball Coach Chuck Brown said. “The others are just going to have to pick up the load she was carrying.”

The injury also could prevent Jones from competing in the Sunkist Invitational indoor track and field meet at the Sports Arena on Feb. 15.

“Right now, I would say that (the Sunkist meet) is definitely out,” Mason said. “She’s not going to come back any quicker than what is safe for her.”

Although Mason said that the injury might push back Jones’ training for the upcoming track season--which will include the U. S. Olympic Trials in New Orleans in June--he did not foresee it affecting her adversely. “We’re just fortunate and pleased that she is not more seriously hurt than this,” Mason said. “It could have been a lot worse.”

Jones, Track & Field News’ 1991 high school girl athlete of the year, appeared to have been undercut when she was fouled, but Simi Valley Coach Dave Murphy said that it was unintentional.

“Marion went up for the shot and our girl tried to block it,” Murphy said. “But very few girls can jump as high as Marion, so our girl hit her in the legs.”

Melissa Wood, a 5-foot-9 junior, will replace Jones in the lineup, Brown said.