The accident occurred with barely a minute and a half left to play in the first half.
The American forward Shanquan Hemphill then tried to break a Luleå pass, but Luleå’s Oscar Wickström Stümer was ahead. Hemphill fell to the floor after the duel with Wickström Stümer, shaking in pain.
The players had to help Hemphill
He remained on the floor for a long time, but after more than five minutes of waiting, a stretcher finally came out onto the field.
Players and officials helped Hemphill onto the stretcher, and after six people together carried the stretcher out, the game was finally able to resume.
– Very unpleasant to see. I’ve seen a few situations like that in my short career. Hope he has a quick “recovery”, says Oscar Wickström Stümer to Expressen.
“A great loss for us”
Judging from the TV images, it was the shoulder that injured Hemphill, who did not return to play during the game.
– He is a big part of this team, so it is a big loss for us, said Nässjö’s Cole Long in the halftime interview.
– Hopefully we can win for him.
Extra time decided
And they came close to doing that. Despite finishing a full 14 points behind Luleå in the regular season, and thus being forced to do without Hemphill in the second half, picked up in the second half up 39–42 to 81–81.
In the subsequent overtime, the guests from Småland took the lead early, but Luleå managed to turn around and eventually won 95–90.
– We were losing it a bit. We needed to make a “push” there at the end, which we succeeded in, says Luleå’s Gustav Hansson.
Luleå now leads the match series, which is played in the best of five, with 1–0.