Heytvelt’s ankle broken

LAHAINA, Hawaii – The X-ray results on the ankle injury Gonzaga’s Josh Heytvelt sustained during Wednesday night’s 65-63 loss to Connecticut in the championship game of the EA Sports Maui Invitational couldn’t have been much worse.

Bulldogs coach Mark Few confirmed Thursday morning that the 6-foot-11 redshirt freshman forward broke his left ankle while scrambling for a loose ball in front of his own bench and will probably miss the rest of the regular season.

“It’s too bad,” Few said. “Even though he wasn’t 100 percent yet, you could see what he means to this team. He was really starting to help us, and really coming on.”

Heytvelt, a former prep standout at Clarkston High School, redshirted last year and this season missed all of fall camp, both of the Zags’ exhibitions and their season-opening win over Idaho because of a stress reaction in his left foot.

Heytvelt made his GU debut in Monday’s 88-76, opening-round Maui Invitational win over Maryland, finishing with four points and one rebound in 9 minutes of playing time.

He played 19 minutes in the Bulldogs’ 109-106 triple-overtime win over Michigan State, scoring nine points and grabbing four rebounds.

He missed the only three shots he took against UConn before breaking his ankle just 8 minutes into the title game.

Heytvelt limped off the court at halftime and spent the second half of the game lying on his back, with his injured foot iced and elevated, at the end of the court near the Gonzaga bench. He was taken to a local hospital immediately after the game for X-rays.

Few said Heytvelt will undergo surgery on the ankle on Monday and will probably spend at least six weeks in a cast. It will be another six to eight weeks before the ankle will be able to bear weight, Few added, which makes it unlikely Heytvelt will return prior to March.