The official start of the basketball season doesn’t begin until mid-October; however, the Lady Bucs received discouraging news recently as senior point guard Tarita Gordon learned she will miss the entire 2010-11 season after having surgery to repair her right knee.Gordon, who transferred to ETSU a year ago and erupted for a career-high 30 points on 5-of-8 shooting from beyond the arc in the 2010 NCAA Tournament game at Xavier, injured her knee in late July while playing for the Jamaican National Team.

The Wichita, Kan., native saw action in all 32 games (21 starts) last season for the Lady Bucs, and averaged 11.1 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 2.4 assists in 24.3 minutes per game.

Gordon was also named to the Atlantic Sun All-Tournament Team after recording 14.4 points and 3.3 rebounds per game for ETSU in wins over Stetson, Belmont and North Florida.

Gordon and head coach Karen Kemp have decided to use the 2010-11 season as a red-shirt year, and bring the talented point guard back in 2011-12.

“Tarita and I talked about using this upcoming season as a red-shirt season. We both thought it was the best decision to take the entire year off and make sure the knee heals 100 percent,” said Kemp. “We were expecting big things from Tarita this upcoming season, so this definitely is a big loss for us. However, we did recruit some talented guards and they will be expected to step up and contribute right away.”

The Lady Bucs begin the 2010-11 season with an exhibition game against Emory & Henry on Monday, Nov. 1 inside the ETSU/MSHA Athletic Center.

For more information on Lady Buccaneer basketball, visit www.ETSUBucs.com.

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