Shoshoni senior point guard Andrew Garcia was driving down the lane on a breakaway with just 12 seconds remaining in the opening half at Alfred P. Redman Memorial Gym in Ethete Thursday night, when he was fouled on the play.
It was an ordinary foul. The kind you seem a dozen or more times a game on most nights, but this time it was different. Garcia hit the floor at an odd angle, and there was a loud popping sound as he hit the crash pad in agony, breaking both bones in his lower left leg in the process.
The Chiefs were leading 51-26 at that point. Play came to a stop.
For almost an hour, Garcia, his coaches, and staff from Wyoming Indian lay on the Wyoming Indian end of the floor under the basket waiting for an ambulance from Lander to arrive.
In the interim, Shoshoni head coach Taylor Dick and Wyoming Indian head coach Craig Ferris read the situation, and after a brief deliberation, decided to call the game at the half, a Wyoming Indian win.
Garcia was transported to Sage West Hospital in Lander and was scheduled for surgery on Friday. The Shoshoni team has two more games to play, Friday in Kemmerer and Saturday afternoon at home against Big Piney.
The Chiefs travel to Cowley on Saturday to play the young but talented Rocky Mountain Grizzlies.