Junior guard Kyson Rawls left Monday night’s game against the A&T Aggies with a sprained left ACL. While his teammates are relieved it didn’t cost him the season, they’ll have to adjust to his absence on the court in preparation for Saturday’s game against Coppin State.

“We’re going to step up for him at the game because he has our back and we have his,” senior guard Stanley Davis said. 

As the team caption, Davis recalled the moment Rawls went down on Monday and how the team automatically thought the worst.

“He said that it was his knee that was bothering him and when any basketball player says that we always think of MCL or ACL,” Davis said.

Although Rawls will not be featured in the starting lineup, he has the potential to boost their score from the bench. Before his injury Monday night, he scored 12 points off the bench against North Carolina A&T.

While Rawls heals for the next couple of weeks, head coach Kevin Broadus plans to boost his players’ minutes to make up for his absence and to do that, players such as freshman guard Tahji-Malik Campbell have been called to work overtime to ensure Saturday’s win. 

“We’ll just have to bring some of these other guys along and they’ve got to make shots,” Broadus said. 

Campbell hasn’t scored any serious minutes on the court this season. However, Broadus believes that with Rawls’ injury, he has the opportunity to add value to the score.

“We’ll miss him a lot, he can stretch the floor and he’s a great shooter,” Sophomore guard Malik Miller said. “He’s a solid point guard.” 

Off the bench, Rawls not only scored double digits twice this season, but he also averages 4.3 points and shoots 37.7 percent from the field, according to ESPN.

The team hopes that Rawls will be healed before the Mid-Eastern Atlantic Conference (MEAC) in March. Until then, the men will face Coppin State, a team that defeated them in last year’s MEAC tournament.

The defeat resulted in the team’s elimination in the first round. Coppin also conquered Morgan in both matchups in the regular season.

The Bears are set to take their conference foe on road at 4 p.m., marking the 93rd matchup between the universities.