Georgia Tech guard Josh Okogie will be sidelined after suffering an open dislocation of the index finger of his left hand in the Yellow Jackets’ exhibition against Georgia State on Saturday at McCamish Pavilion.
A member of the ACC all-freshman team last season, Okogie suffered the injury in the second half of Tech’s 65-58 loss to the Panthers and later left the court with his index finger heavily wrapped.
An open dislocation includes a break in the skin. Okogie led the Jackets in scoring last season and was named to the preseason All-ACC team this week.
“We’ll just have to wait till the doctors to come back (with a diagnosis), but he could be out for a while,” Pastner said. “We just don’t know yet.”
Okogie apparently suffered the injury as he went up for a shot, drew contact and then fell to the floor. Without Okogie, the scoring burden falls more on center Ben Lammers and guard Tadric Jackson, as well as the rest of the team. Some of his minutes could go to freshman guard Curtis Haywood.
Okogie averaged 16.1 points and 5.4 rebounds per game last season. He had games in which he scored more than 30 points, becoming the third Tech freshman in school history to have multiple 30-point games, joining legends Mark Price and Kenny Anderson.
“If we don’t have Josh for a while, we’ll just have to deal with it, and next man’s got to step up and just get the job done,” Pastner said. “No one wants to hear any excuses about it. I love Josh, and he’s an unbelievable man, so I hate it for him.”
Okogie was not the only Tech player to suffer an injury in the game. Graduate transfer guard Brandon Alston sprained his MCL, becoming the second player in less than two weeks to incur that injury, following forward Sylvester Ogbonda.
Georgia State guard D’Marcus Simonds scored a game-high 30 points on 11-for-19 shooting from the field. The game, played as a benefit for hurricane relief, was the first time the two teams had met since December 2008.
“It counts for all of us,” Georgia State coach Ron Hunter said. “It may not count in the standings and all that, but our kids, that counted.”
An earlier version of this story incorrectly described the injury.
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