Elon University men's basketball sophomore guard Austin Hamilton will miss the rest of the 2012-13 season with a torn ACL. He will have surgery sometime in the near future, but the date has not been set.
Hamilton has missed the last four games since tearing the ligament in a 80-67 victory against Western Carolina University Jan. 14. He was starting at point guard at the time.
Freshman guard Tanner Samson replaced Hamilton in the starting lineup and junior guard Jack Isenbarger moved to the point guard spot. Senior guard Josh Bonney has also seen increased minutes in Hamilton's absence.
Hamilton tweeted (@A_ham10) this Tuesday night in two separate tweets: "Wanted to let my twitter fam know that ill be sidelined for the remainder of the season due to an acl tear. But thank you for all the support and ill be back even better next year!"
Despite Hamilton missing time, Elon players such as junior forward Ryley Beaumont have not been concerned.
"Tanner’s always since the beginning of the season got a pretty good amount of time, so shifting him into the starting lineup, it’s a little bit different not having Austin, but having Josh come off the bench also and fill a very important role in quick point guards attacking, it really helps that smooth transition into that," Beaumont said following the Phoenix's Jan. 24 win over the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. "Josh has been playing well, Tanner has been playing well, so we haven’t really skipped a beat from it."
The Phoenix (13-7, 6-2 Southern Conference) will face the University of North Carolina at Greensboro Thursday night at 7 in Greensboro.