1/28/2017 basketball Edit

IU Guard James Blackmon Jr. Out Indefinitely Due To Lower Leg Injury

Stu Jackson • TheHoosier

Staff Writer

Stu Jackson covers Indiana University basketball, football and recruiting for TheHoosier.com. He also hosts Heard on The Hoosier, the site's official podcast.

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Indiana will be without its leading scorer in a critical road game.

The program on Saturday announced that junior guard James Blackmon Jr. is out indefinitely after suffering a lower leg injury in the loss at Michigan. As a result, he will miss Sunday's game at Northwestern.

"Unfortunately, James Blackmon Jr. sustained a lower leg injury during our game at Michigan last Thursday night and will be out for an indefinite period of time," IU head coach Tom Crean said in a statement. "As much as this affects our basketball team -- as with all the other injuries this year -- it hurts much more for James. He has been playing a very high level and this is unfortunate."

With about three minutes remaining in the first half of the Michigan game, Blackmon did a crossover dribble then grabbed at his right ankle after passing the ball to teammate and redshirt sophomore Zach McRoberts. Blackmon pulled off briefly toward the team's bench but remained in the game, managing to play 33 minutes and finish with four points on 2 of 3 shooting from the field in the loss. He did not take a shot in the second half.

This marks the second time this season Blackmon has missed time due to a lower leg injury. Blackmon sustained a knee injury in the Hoosiers' loss at Fort Wayne in November, a setback which forced him to miss one game.

Blackmon, who has started in all 20 contests he's played, was averaging a team-high 17.6 points in 30.4 minutes per game this season.