Auburn's Okeke leaves game with 'serious' knee injury

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Auburn sophomore forward Chuma Okeke left the Tigers' NCAA Tournament Midwest Region semifinal game against North Carolina on Friday night with a left knee injury with a little more than eight minutes remaining in the game.

Shortly thereafter, he was ruled out for the remainder of the game and scheduled for on-site tests.

After the game, Auburn coach Bruce Pearl choked up while discussing Okeke's injury, composed himself and said, "Bittersweet because of Chuma's injury. ... We're going to rally."

Pearl said a few minutes later, "It's a knee injury. We don't know the extent, but we think it could be serious."

Okeke sustained the injury when his left knee buckled under his own weight while driving to the basket with 8:08 to go in the second half.

Okeke was called for traveling on the play. He lay on the floor for a few minutes while the crowd watched silently and trainers tended to him. After he made it to his feet, he was hugged by several North Carolina players before being helped past the Auburn bench, off the court and into the locker room.

Auburn players asked if they could pray for "their brother," Pearl said. "In those moments, you begin to see what these guys are made of, both teams. We started to pray, and Carolina did it, too."

Okeke wound up leading Auburn in scoring with 20 points and in rebounds with 11. The third-seeded Tigers were up 76-62 on the top-seeded Tar Heels at the time that he exited, and they finished off the upset 97-80.

Okeke is Auburn's third-leading scorer on the season at 11.8 points per game. He leads the Tigers with 6.7 rebounds per contest.

"I think Chuma is our most valuable player," Tigers guard Jared Harper said. "He gets rebounds, gets assists. He can guard all five (positions). But I think the good thing going forward is that we have nine other guys. It will take all nine of our players to be able to step into his role, make sure we're in the right spots."

--Field Level Media