Missouri women lose point guard Lianna Doty for season

Missouri women’s basketball point guard Lianna Doty is out for the season with a foot injury, a spokesman for the Tigers confirmed.

Coach Robin Pingeton announced the injury Monday and Doty is scheduled to have surgery to repair a torn Lisfranc tendon and dislocated bones in her left foot on Tuesday.

Doty suffered the injury Oct. 24 in practice and was on crutches when the Missouri women’s team was introduced at halftime of Saturday’s football game against Kentucky.

Doty, a junior from Kirkwood High School in St. Louis who started all 31 games for the Tigers last season, averaged 5.1 points and 3.5 rebounds with a team-high 53 steals last season.

She also led Missouri, averaging 5.6 assists per game — 29th most in the nation.

Pingeton said the Tigers will seek a medical waiver to protect Doty’s eligibility.

For the 2014-15 season, that leaves Missouri with 5-foot-4 freshman Carrie Shephard, the reigning Miss Show-Me Basketball and a two-time Class 2A player of the year from South Pemiscot High in Steele, Mo., as the only true point guard on the roster.

Redshirt sophomore Lindsey Cunningham from Rock Bridge High in Columbia will switch from shooting guard to help at the point guard spot.

She appeared in all 31 games last season, averaging 1.5 points in 11.1 minutes with 53 assists and 44 turnovers.

Junior Juanita Robinson, a Johnson County Community College transfer from Chicago who is returning from a knee injury, also could see minutes at point guard.

There was some good news on the injury front.

Senior Morgan Eye, who injured an MCL last month during a coaches’ clinic, practiced Monday for the first time.

She is expected to play a limited role during Missouri’s exhibition opener at 7 p.m. Wednesday against Lindenwood at the Hearnes Center.

This story was originally published November 3, 2014 at 4:58 PM with the headline "Missouri women lose point guard Lianna Doty for season."