Sports

Charlotte’s Henry taken to hospital after struggling to breathe at A-10 tourney

Pierria Henry on sidelines.

Pierria Henry on sidelines. (
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Charlotte guard Pierria Henry was taken to the hospital after suffering an injury in the 49ers’ 72-55 loss to St. Louis in the second round of the Atlantic 10 tournament at Barclays Center on Friday Afternoon.

Henry, who was the hero in Charlotte’s 68-63 win over Richmond on Thursday, took an elbow to the throat from St. Louis guard Jordair Jett with 3:48 left to play in the second half.

“I haven’t heard anything yet. I’m very, very concerned to be quite honest,” Charlotte head coach Alan Major said. “When a guy has a tough time breathing, I’m not quite sure what that means, but we’re trying to organize the team and go to the hospital where he is.”

The 6-foot-4 sophomore guard immediately went down after suffering the blow, and writhed in pain near mid-court for several minutes before being helped up and walking to the 49ers bench.

As team officials and staff tended to Henry on the bench, he continued to show signs of pain and appeared to have trouble breathing. At one point the bench players on Charlotte huddled around Henry before he was taken through the tunnel and out in a wheelchair.

“The whole team said in the locker room they wanted to be with him. Hopefully he’s ok,” Major said. “Once this is wrapped up we’ll go find out.”

It was not immediately known the severity of the injury or what hospital he was taken to due to privacy reasons.

The officials did not issue a flagrant foul on the play.

“The officials went to the monitor and said they didn’t see anything flagrant,” Major said. “It was like an incidental thing. Hopefully he’ll be fine.”