The backcourt of the Colorado State men’s basketball team added another injury to its list Thursday morning when junior guard J.D. Paige announced on Twitter that he has a broken hand. The Rams’ leader in minutes played joins fellow junior guard Prentiss Nixon who has endured multiple injuries already this season.

https://twitter.com/JeremiahPaige22/status/956586983450488832

No official word from the team has come out to confirm Paige’s injury, but if his believed three-week recovery is accurate, he would be back Feb. 17 for the Rams’ road match against the Fresno State Bulldogs. The Mountain West tournament does not begin for another five weeks on March 7.

The injury occurred seemingly out of nowhere Wednesday night in the Rams’ 97-78 loss on the road to the San Diego State Aztecs. Paige came up to guard the Aztecs’ guard carrying the ball down the floor when 6-foot-10 inch, 220-pound forward Malik Pope laid a screen on the unaware Paige. The guard ran straight into Pope and immediately grabbed his hand in pain.

Paige, second on the team in scoring with 10.4 points per contest, is the team’s leading distributer with 2.5 assists per game. The Denver native is one of four players on the team to appear all 22 games this season.

There is no question that the junior guard is one of the team’s emotional leaders and losing his presence on the court could have even bigger consequences than his playing ability.

With Nixon already sitting out the past two games with an ankle injury, the loss of another veteran backcourt player does not bode well for a team featuring only one senior and many unproven talents. The Rams are currently 10-12 on the season and their 3-6 conference record has them in ninth in the Mountain West standings.

CSU takes the court next on the road against the New Mexico Lobos on Jan. 27 starting at 7 p.m. MT.

Collegian sports reporter Austin White can be reached by email at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @ajwrules44