Painful ending for Schaumburg's Payne
Schaumburg senior boys basketball star Cully Payne received painful news about his back injury Friday morning.
Results of an MRI performed Wednesday revealed a pair of stress fractures in his L3 vertebrae had not sufficiently healed. Schaumburg coach Bob Williams said Payne was told by his doctor it would be at least four more weeks before he could play, which would be after the Class 4A state finals in Peoria.
"He's pretty down," Williams said of the news that Payne's season and high school career are over.
On Saturday night, after Schaumburg beat Glenbrook South 54-40, Payne was hopeful he might be able to play in tonight's Mid-Suburban West showdown with rival Hoffman Estates. He said his back had been feeling a lot better.
The 6-foot-1 guard, who has signed with Alabama, started to have back trouble in December. In his last game he scored 13 points in a 62-52 loss to Fremd on Jan. 9.
The first of eight games Payne has been sidelined was the Saxons' 61-51 win at Hoffman Estates on Jan. 15. He was averaging 22.3 points a game with 42 3-pointers and the Saxons were 14-2 with him on the court.
Williams said "it is what it is" and he hadn't expected Payne to play tonight anyway because he had not practiced.
With a win tonight Schaumburg (19-5, 6-3) would claim the West Division title berth to next Wednesday's MSL title game at Prospect by virtue of a season sweep over Hoffman (18-6, 7-2).
A win by Hoffman gives it the West title outright and the title-game berth.