Story by
Fire Guard Sarah Ashlee Barker Out for Season With Torn ACL
- Story by
- Fire Guard Sarah Ashlee Barker Out for Season With Torn ACL
(Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images)
Portland Fire guard Sarah Ashlee Barker tore the ACL in her left knee and will miss the rest of the season, the team said Friday.
An MRI confirmed the injury. Barker will have surgery. The Fire did not give a timetable for her return.
Advertisement
Barker was hurt with 6:08 left in the first quarter of Wednesday's 101-97 loss to Dallas , diving toward the sideline to keep a ball in play. She grabbed her left knee and stayed on the floor. Team personnel helped her up, and she went to the locker room without putting weight on the leg. It was Portland's last game before the WNBA All-Star break .
Fire coach Alex Sarama called Barker the heart and soul of the team afterward.
"(Barker) is one of the better point of attack defenders in the league, and that's how we've been using her," Sarama said. "And it really hurts our defense."
Barker averaged 10.7 points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 0.9 steals in 26 games, 15 of them starts. She shot 50.2% from the field and 40% from 3-point range in 24.7 minutes a game, and ranks second on the team in rebounding and fourth in scoring.
Advertisement
Carla Leite leads the Fire at 15.3 points a game, followed by Bridget Carleton at 13.7 and Megan DiLeo at 12.6. Portland averages 85.3 points.
The Fire allowed 107.5 points per 100 possessions with Barker on the court and 113.2 with her off it. The offense produced 103.1 and 104.3 in the same splits.
Los Angeles took Barker ninth overall out of Alabama in the 2025 draft. She averaged 3.1 points in 14.1 minutes as a rookie, and the Sparks left her unprotected in the expansion draft.
Her role in Portland was built around catch-and-shoot chances. Spot-ups accounted for 24.1% of her possessions and produced 1.388 points per possession, in the 96th percentile leaguewide. She shot 52.3% on spot-up 3-pointers. On catch-and-shoot attempts overall, she had an effective field goal percentage of 63.0%, and 60.7% when guarded.
Advertisement
She was less effective with the ball. Barker scored 0.611 points per possession as a pick-and-roll ball handler, in the 14th percentile, and had 2 points in 12 possessions coming off screens. She shot 58.1% at the rim on 105 attempts, scored 1.263 points per possession on cuts, and averaged 1.137 in transition over 51 possessions.
Sarama used Barker on opposing guards and wings defensively and kept her off the ball at the other end.
Leite, Teja Oblak, Karlie Samuelson, and Holly Winterburn are the guards remaining in the rotation. Samuelson has averaged 4.1 points in 15 games and Oblak 5.8 in 21.
The Fire are 27 games into their first season. Recovery from ACL surgery generally takes nine to 12 months.
