{"id":370230,"date":"2025-12-25T04:17:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T04:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/370230\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T04:17:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T04:17:08","slug":"colorado-buffaloes-womens-basketball-loses-star-to-season-ending-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/370230\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado Buffaloes Women’s Basketball Loses Star To Season-Ending Injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the past 14 months, health has eluded Colorado Buffaloes<\/a> women’s basketball. That will continue until at least next fall.<\/p>\n

According to a Wednesday report<\/a> by the Daily Camera’s Brian Howell, redshirt sophomore point guard Kennedy Sanders will undergo season-ending hip surgery. She appeared in 10 of Colorado’s 13 games thus far, starting all of them and averaging 9.9 points and 2.2 assists, but hadn’t played since Dec. 14.<\/p>\n

Kennedy Sanders Out For Season\"<\/p>\n

Mar 7, 2025; Kansas City, MO, USA; TCU Horned Frogs guard Una Jovanovic (5) handles the ball while defended by Colorado Buffaloes guard Kennedy Sanders (2) during the first quarter at T-Mobile Center. | Amy Kontras-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Sanders’ injuries, which include a torn labrum and hip impingement, stem from offseason conditioning last August. She pushed through them throughout the Buffaloes’ non-conference slate, but they’ve proven too much to overcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a huge loss for the basketball play, but also for just sort of the calm that she brings to all of us,\u201d coach JR Payne told Howell. \u201cOn the court, she\u2019s been a huge asset to her younger teammates. They all love her and respect her, not just because she\u2019s a good player, but because of the person that she is.”<\/p>\n

It’s the second long-term injury Sanders has suffered over three seasons in Boulder, as a broken foot deleted her chance at a freshman year. She is expected to apply for a medical redshirt and return for the 2026-27 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m definitely just excited to not be in pain,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cI can\u2019t remember the last time I\u2019ve not been in pain. It\u2019s been so long. I\u2019m used to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Colorado<\/p>\n

Mar 7, 2025; Kansas City, MO, USA; Colorado Buffaloes guard Kennedy Sanders (2) shoots the ball while defended by TCU Horned Frogs forward Aaliyah Roberson (23) during the fourth quarter at T-Mobile Center. | Amy Kontras-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Payne did what she could to mitigate Sanders’ ailments, as she played a combined 17 minutes against Portland State and Boise State and sat against VCU to avoid playing on back-to-back days.<\/p>\n

She scored double digits four times this season, including a career-high 19 points against UT Arlington. Sanders also led qualified Buffs at the free-throw line (84.6 percent) and was second in 3-point percentage (32.1). Her struggles were as a distributor, leading Colorado with 2.5 turnovers per game. <\/p>\n

MORE: Deion Sanders Reportedly Hires Familiar Name As Colorado Running Backs Coach<\/a><\/p>\n

MORE: Why Shedeur Sanders Will Bounce Back From Late-Season Struggles<\/a><\/p>\n

MORE: Insider Reveals Biggest Reason Behind Colorado’s Transfer Portal Mass Exodus<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER HERE<\/a><\/p>\n

But while her offense was still developing, she made great strides on defense. Sanders swiped three or more steals four times (1.9 on average), including a career-high of five.<\/p>\n

Last season, Sanders appeared in 29 of Colorado’s 34 games (started one) and averaged 4.9 points and 2.3 assists. She emerged in Big 12 Championship bouts with Arizona (14 points) and TCU (11 points) to secure a greater role, but her ascent has once again been pushed aside.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited to move into a new role and just be there for my teammates,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cI\u2019ve been here for three years now, so there\u2019s definitely some insight I can give \u2026 It\u2019ll be different, but I definitely want to be around the girls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buffs In Trouble To Begin Big 12 Play\"Louisville\u2019s<\/p>\n

Louisville\u2019s Skylar Jones tries to make a shot at the 1st quarter buzzer against Colorado\u2019s Claire O’Connor Wednesday night at KFC Yum! Center.
\nNovember 12, 2025 | Scott Utterback\/Courier Journal \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The loss of Sanders is a major hit as Colorado (9-4, 0-1 Big 12) still figures things out for conference play. The Buffaloes lost their Big 12 opener to Arizona State last Sunday, their third loss in seven games.<\/p>\n

Shooting and ball security have stymied Payne’s squad, causing several preventable losses. Colorado is shooting just 26 percent from 3-point range, second-worst among Big 12 teams, and is averaging 16.7 turnovers per game.<\/p>\n

Sanders’ absence will be another hit to their long-distance woes, but the Buffaloes are expecting back guard Claire O’Connor, who has missed nearly a month with an undisclosed foot injury. The Gonzaga transfer is a career 40.7 percent 3-point shooter.<\/p>\n

Still, Colorado is its conference’s second-worst defensive rebounding<\/a> squad and ranks fourth-to-last in assists. Contributions from forward Jade Masogayo, along with guards Desiree Wooten and Zyanna Walker, must improve if the Buffs want to return to the NCAA Tournament this March.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the past 14 months, health has eluded Colorado Buffaloes women’s basketball. That will continue until at least…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-370230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}