Oh no! An Iowa State cheerleader took a kicked ball RIGHT in the face. Get well! pic.twitter.com/3yHKXJEdEs
— HuffPost Sports (@HuffPostSports) March 26, 2016
Who says basketball isn’t a physical, dangerous sport? Things are happening full speed and there’s not a lot of room between the court and the out-of-bounds area. Unfortunately for an Iowa State cheerleader, she found that out the hard way.
Late in the second half of Friday’s Sweet 16 game between Iowa State and Virginia, a Cyclones player accidentally kicked the ball out of bounds on a full-court press and the aforementioned cheerleader got the flying ball right in the face. In these types of moments, there’s unfortunately not a lot that cheerleader can do. Everything is happening so fast and there’s no way she would have been able to avoid getting hit given how close she was to the action.
You have to give her credit, though. Despite getting rocked, and clearly in a lot of pain, she still kinda-sorta tried to wave her pom-poms. You have to admire the toughness. It looks like she’s going to be okay, but goodness, what a shot.
Iowa St cheerleader takes kicked ball off the face pic.twitter.com/IjpWDHP6Cq
— Busted Coverage (@bustedcoverage) March 26, 2016
Iowa State would go on to lose to No. 1-seed Virginia 84-71.