Cassidy Rowe was out several hours before Thursday's district title getting up shots. She took a spill during the game and thought she broke her wrists but found out Friday it was not broken. (Shelby Valley Basketball Photo)
As soon as she hit the floor, Kentucky women’s basketball signee Cassidy Rowe was sure she had broken her right wrist. The Shelby Valley senior guard was driving to the basket midway of the second quarter in the 59th District Tournament championship game when she collided with a Pikeville player and landed on her wrist.
Not only had Rowe broken her wrist when she was younger, but she twice needed knee surgery in high school that forced her to miss parts of two seasons.
“My brother was on the sideline. When she rolled over, she said, ‘I broke my wrist,'” Shelby Valley coach Lonnie Rowe, Cassidy’s father, said Friday. “When I got out there she told me she knew it was broken because she had done it before and knew what it felt like.”
The coach said her teammates on the court started praying for the senior guard. So did the coach and his wife, the team’s statistician.
They took his wife’s iPad and put Cassidy’s wrist on it to help her walk off the floor.
“The wrist was just dangling and there was a dip where she said she broke it,” Lonnie Rowe said. “I had to keep coaching, but everyone in the gym knew it was broke. She walks into the locker room at halftime and said, ‘I am sorry I cannot be with you but I have to go. My wrist is broken.'”
After the game, the coach went to the hospital to see Cassidy. She was talking to his wife, two nieces, and his sister-in-law.
“She said, ‘It doesn’t feel near as bad.’ The doctor came in and said they didn’t see anything (on the X-ray). Her eyes got real big,” Lonnie Rowe said. “I asked if the doctor would mind if we got a second opinion and he encouraged us to do that.”
Friday morning they went to see Dr. Robert Royalty, an orthopedic surgery specialist, in Prestonsburg. He was in surgery but another doctor told them X-rays taken when they arrived showed no break. Fifteen minutes later Dr. Royalty came in after finishing surgery and said, ‘Cass, no breaks.’ He said it was not broken.”
His advice was to ice the wrist and rest a couple of days in hopes she might be able to play in the 15th Region Tournament that starts. Late Friday she still could not completely bend the wrist.
Taking it easy it not something Cassidy Rowe does well. After hearing Dr. Royalty’s advice, she asked her parents if she could at least go back to the gym at Shelby Valley and shoot left-handed free throws.
“We both said not, but we sort of made a deal with her. If she would ice her right wrist, she could sit on the floor and dribble with her left hand,” Lonnie Rowe said.
Shelby Valley (22-9) ended up losing 46-36 to Pikeville in the 59th District Tournament championship game. Both teams advanced to the 15th Region Tournament and could meet again in the regional final depending on Rowe’s status.
Rowe is averaging 16.9 points and 3.9 rebounds per game this year and shooting 46 percent overall from the field and 40 percent from 3-point range (she has made over 250 3’s). She is also a 78 percent foul shooter. She is also the school’s all-time assists leader.
Pairings for the 15th Region tourney will be made today.
“We are hoping for a Tuesday game and not Monday to give Cass an extra day to rest and rehab,” Lonnie Rowe said.
