Tiffany MenhornBy Maggie Samole / Sports editor

With just under six minutes remaining in the first half against the Lake Erie Storm last Saturday, senior guard Tiffany Menhorn secured her spot in Bobcat basketball history. Her layup broke the career scoring record of 1,420 points held by former standout Annie Sral. The moment was an all-time high in Menhorn’s memory bank.

The moment also was short-lived.

At the 15:35 mark of the second half, a Storm player drove to the basket and collided with Menhorn’s left knee. She left the game for a few minutes to collect her wits, but the damage was already done.

“When I got hurt, I was like ‘Get up,’” Menhorn said. “That’s all I thought in my mind. After playing on it for a few minutes, I knew it was serious. It was going from an extreme high to an extreme low.”

Although she returned to the game and scored a team-high 16 points, the injury hampered Menhorn’s performance.

“I couldn’t backpedal or do any cuts,” she said. “I had to run in squares.”

Women’s basketball head coach Carol Gelet was upset by the injury.

“It wasn’t fair,” Gelet said. “Tiffany’s a young lady with so much drive and determination and to have it happen to her after such an amazing individual accomplishment wasn’t fair to her.”

After an MRI and an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon, Menhorn learned she had a torn medial meniscus. Menhorn had surgery to treat the injury on Feb. 1.

Depending on the severity of a meniscus injury, a surgeon will either remove the damaged portion or repair it. The recovery time for a repair is significantly longer than that of the removal of the damaged cartilage. In Menhorn’s case, her larger-than-normal meniscus provided some favorable circumstances for her surgery.

“There was a lot of damage, so Dr. [Robin] West removed a lot of it,” Menhorn said. “Lucky for me, my meniscus was so big there was still a lot left.”

Menhorn is rehabbing her knee in hopes of returning to the court in time for playoffs. She has an appointment with West on Feb. 18 to determine if her season – and career – is over.

“She’ll let me know if I’m able to play again then,” Menhorn said. “I want to come back, but it’s whatever’s meant to be. I can’t push it.”

Menhorn’s career scoring mark stands at 1,433 points.

Even though the Bobcats have been without Menhorn for their past two games, the team picked up a couple of road wins in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference. Gelet said Menhorn’s absence has opened an opportunity to look for emerging leaders on the team.

“Tiff’s the team leader,” Gelet said. “The youngsters on the team are most comfortable when she’s on the court. We felt the blow immediately.”

Two first-year players – freshmen Kelly Stewart and Allison Bilak – have seized their chance to contribute. Gelet said both have played important roles in the past two wins.

“They both came in after getting few minutes the first half of the season and made some big plays,” she said. “Kelly hit a big bucket for us in the last game and Allison gave us some good defense.”

Gelet said the team’s goal is to continue their two-game winning streak even without their captain and floor leader. They’ve also set a goal to win at least five of their final six regular season games.

“I think they’ll make it happen,” she said. “There hasn’t been one single person stepping up to make up for Tiffany’s not being there. It’s been a different person stepping up each game. Somebody has always found a way to step up because they don’t want to lose.”

Of the Bobcats’ next six opponents, their toughest challenge will come against the 18-1 Medaille Mavericks, currently the 14th ranked team in the nation. Gelet said if they win against Medaille, it would be a major upset.

The Bobcats begin a five-game home stand this Wednesday against Mt. Aloysius. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.