Western Carolina guard James Sinclair quickly reinstated for WCU

Southern Conference
Southern Conference
photo UTC's Justin Tuoyo loses the ball at the net as he is blocked by Western Carolina's Torrion Brummitt (4) and James Sinclair (25) during the Mocs' SoCon basketball game against the Catamounts on Thursday, Jan. 8, 2015, at McKenzie Arena in Chattanooga.

Western Carolina guard James Sinclair's senior basketball campaign can continue.

The 6-foot-2 Sinclair, who was the Southern Conference player of the month for November, was ruled academically ineligible after the Catamounts dropped a 66-60 decision to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga last Thursday. He sat out the team's game against UNC Greensboro, an 82-72 win.

Sinclair has averaged 17.8 points, 5.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 2.1 steals for the Catamounts. He has 986 points in his four-year career.

"Through routine academic processes that are in place for all students, university officials discovered that Sinclair failed to follow proper protocol for repeating an academic course," a statement on WCU's athletics website read. "University officials determined through normal review processes that a course he had taken on two occasions had been counted twice in calculating his grade point average, when it should have been counted only once.

"As a result, the student-athlete is now eligible under NCAA regulations to participate fully as a member of the men's basketball team."

The Catamounts (8-9, 3-2) host East Tennessee State (9-5, 4-2) this Thursday.

Who's next?

Four SoCon men's players have eclipsed the 1,000-point mark in their careers this season -- The Citadel's Ashton Moore, Furman's Stephen Croone, Wofford's Lee Skinner and, most recently, Samford's Tyler Hood.

Four others should reach that plateau in the next few weeks: Wofford's Spencer Collins (989 points), Western Carolina's Sinclair (986), UTC's Ronrico White (937) and UNC Greensboro's Kayel Locke (914).

The Mocs' Casey Jones is 10th on the scoring list for active players, with 741 points.

On the women's side, UNC Greensboro's Lucy Mason went over the 1,000-point mark in a 74-73 loss to Mercer. The only player nearing that plateau is Furman's Holli Wilkins, who has 894 points.

Home sweet ... home?

During the first weekend of the women's SoCon schedule, road teams went 8-0. UTC and ETSU each defeated Wofford and Furman, while Mercer and Samford claimed wins over UNC Greensboro and Western Carolina in their first road trips of the season.

That trend could continue this weekend, as none of the conference matchups pit undefeated teams against one others.

Players of week

Western Carolina's Mike Brown and Mercer's Precious Bridges were named SoCon players of the week Tuesday, while freshman-of-the-week awards went to Furman's Devin Sibley and ETSU's Tianna Tarter.

Brown, a junior guard, averaged 20.5 points and 5.5 rebounds and shot 60 percent from the floor as the Catamounts split two games, including a career-high 27 points in the team's 10-point win over UNCG. Bridges, who was honored for the second straight week and third time this season, averaged 18.3 points, five rebounds and 3.7 assists in the Bears' wins over Kennesaw State, UNCG and WCU.

Sibley averaged 15 points and four rebounds as the Paladins went 1-1. He had 21 points -- all in the second half -- in the team's 71-64 win over UNCG on Thursday. Tarter, who like Bridges was awarded for the second consecutive week, averaged 19.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and three assists for the Bucs.

Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.

Upcoming Events