Foot injury ends Patterson's season

LEXINGTON, Ky., Feb. 29 (UPI) -- A stress facture in his left foot has ended the college basketball season of Kentucky's leading scorer, freshman forward Patrick Patterson.

The 6-foot-8, 232-pounder out of Huntington (W.Va.) High School was the only freshman ranked among the SEC's top 10 scorers (16.4 points per game) and rebounders (7.7 rebounds per game).

He played on three straight state championship teams in Huntington.

Kentucky said in a statement that Patterson will wear a cast for approximately eight weeks.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reported late Friday that the severity of the injury was discovered Friday morning during an X-ray at UK Hospital in Lexington.

Nothing was mentioned about how Patterson's injury occurred, but a later Herald-Leader report noted that Patterson said the ankle hurt when he woke up Friday morning.

"I started crying when I found out I couldn't play the rest of the season," he said.

Patterson's 411 points equaled Keith Bogans for the fourth-most points ever by a Wildcat freshman.