Maryland basketball’s Bruno Fernando has a sprained ankle, but won’t miss extensive time

Bruno Fernando has been Maryland basketball’s most electric player this season. When he landed on a teammate’s ankle and went down in serious pain during Thursday night’s win over Ohio, the Xfinity Center crowd was silent.

The freshman was carried off the floor by teammates and limped to the locker room on his own power. Late in the game, the team announced he had a sprained right ankle.

After the win, head coach Mark Turgeon said Fernando should miss Saturday’s contest against Gardner-Webb and will probably be out for Tuesday’s game against Catholic, but didn’t have a timetable beyond that. Maryland’s next four games are at home; only three are against Division I opponents, all of which are ranked outside KenPom’s top 190.

“The thing that stinks the most is practice time,” Turgeon said. “We’re gonna actually have time to practice after Tuesday. That’s what hurts the most, and that’s what hurt him the most the first time.” Fernando suffered a high left ankle sprain in the preseason, but was back in time for the opener.

He’s averaging a shade over 10 points per game this season, the third-highest mark on the team, but Maryland will miss his energy even more. His four points Thursday night came on two alley-oop dunks on people’s heads, exclamation points on an otherwise quiet evening. It’s certainly relieving that his injury shouldn’t be serious, but every basketball game without him will be slightly less fun.