UCLA center Travis Wear suffered a high ankle sprain Thursday night against Washington and is unlikely to play Saturday at Washington State, coach Ben Howland said.
Howland termed the injury a "mild" high ankle sprain and said Friday "there's not a lot of swelling," but Wear, second on the team in both scoring (11.8) and rebounding (5.2) did not practice Wednesday. Joshua Smith, coming off a career-high 24 points against Washington, will start against Washington State, and Anthony Stover and Brendan Lane will get increased minutes, Howland said.
The injury occurred midway through the second half against Washington. Wear immediately left the floor but returned to finish the game with eight points and eight rebounds, though he made only 4 of 14 shots for the game. He is shooting 54 percent for the season.
Wear, a 6-foot-10 sophomore who transferred from North Carolina, missed two games earlier this season when he had to spend the night in a hospital after a cut on his foot became infected. He originally cut his foot during a snorkeling mishap after the Maui Invitational in November. Wear also had two teeth knocked out Nov. 28 against Pepperdine, but he did not miss any games because of that.
Peter Yoon covers UCLA for ESPNLosAngeles.com.