Sinclair reaches career milestone in final year

During Aulani Sinclair’s first official recruiting visit to IU, she lived out one of her childhood dreams.

She walked on Branch McCracken Court at Assembly Hall.

As a life-long IU sports fan from Eminence, Ind., the senior forward had been to Assembly Hall many times. Beginning in middle school, Sinclair went to every IU women’s basketball game in Bloomington.

But she had never felt the magic of the historic court for herself.

“I was like, ‘This is awesome,’” she said. “I was star struck. I’d always watched from the stands. Actually being on the court just gave me goosebumps everywhere.”

Playing against Michigan State on Sunday, Sinclair achieved something she never thought would happen when she took those first steps.

With all of her family, extended family and IU friends in attendance, she took a pass from junior guard Andrea Newbauer. Fading away with a hand in her face, Sinclair launched a 3-point shot that swished through the net and became the 23rd Hoosier to ever score 1,000 career points.

“It’d be a dream come true when I was little,” Sinclair said. “Just all of the hard work has really paid off. Looking back, I never thought I would make it this far. It just shows how much hard work can really get you and just keep striving for your dreams and I guess anything can come true.”

Sinclair’s first home court didn’t feel quite like Branch McCracken Court. She grew up a little more than 30 miles from Assembly Hall “in the country.”

As a toddler, she played in her basement on a Little Tykes hoop. But by the time she got to be about 6 years old, she was ready for the real thing. She begged her dad to get her a basketball hoop for their gravel driveway.

Her dad, Wayne, granted her birthday wish and Aulani never looked back, shooting hoops outside with her dad every day.

“Almost every night,” Aulani said, “we’d go out there and play ‘PIG’ and we’d always have little bets, like, ‘Dad, if I win, you’ve got to take me into town for ice cream.’ I always won. I don’t know if he let me win or if I actually won. It’s always a great memory I have of playing with my dad and dribbling in the gravel and just having fun.”

She started playing organized basketball as a first-grader. Her mom, Teresa, drove her more than 20 minutes three times a week to Martinsville to play, because Eminence did not have any youth leagues.

Shortly after, as an elementary student, she joined her high school girls’ basketball team as a manager. Right after school, she ran to the gym to meet the team, and she stayed after practice put in more work on her own game.

Or, sometimes, during practice.

“If they were down some players, I got in there,” she said. “I got to do some drills. I always thought that was cool. I was always in the gym. I was always there.”

The entire town was in the gym on game day according to Sinclair. She said a strong student section combined with a community enthralled with the game of basketball created a sold-out gym for most games.

She likes to compare Eminence to the fictional town of Hickory depicted in “Hoosiers,” one of her favorite movies.

“Eminence, we have nothing really,” she said. “We have no movie theater, no restaurants really. On Friday nights, that’s the thing that brought the whole town together.
“Everyone knew when it was game day. If you saw someone at the gas station, they knew all of your stats, whether it be good or bad. It’s a tight-knit community and everyone supported it.”

By the time Sinclair graduated from Eminence High School, she had recorded a school-record — for boys and girls — of 1,776 points. She had also set the school mark for points in a game with 52 and became the first player in school history to be named an Indiana All-Star.

Redshirt senior center Sasha Chaplin was a freshman at IU when the coaching staff recruited Sinclair. That year, word traveled quickly to the team of Sinclair’s blistering 52-point performance, and Chaplin couldn’t believe it, remembering her career high of 31.

“Her scoring was definitely an eye-catcher,” she said.

But when Sinclair came to IU as a freshman, the team already had scorers. Then-junior Jori Davis led the team with 16.7 points per game. Next year, Davis averaged over 19 and finished her career with 1,586 points.

“We just had a lot of scorers at that point,” Chaplin said. “She (Sinclair) did what she had to do. She played her role. She was always known as a shooter.”

Sinclair still played, seeing action in 30 games and making six starts, but only averaged 3.6 points per game.

However, she had already established her place as a marksman.

“I was like, ‘Oh, she can really shoot,’” Chaplin said.

After steadily increasing her scoring average the following years to 6.9 and 12.4, Sinclair is now not just the leading scorer for the Hoosiers, but she’s also the fifth highest scorer this season in the Big Ten at 18.1 points per game.

“Aulani has been absolutely tremendous for us this year,” IU Coach Curt Miller said. “She’s a tremendous shooter.”
“Aulani gets a lot of attention defensively this year in this league. Everybody’s game plan when they see us is centered around Aulani.”

Sinclair cracked the top-20 all-time leading scorers in IU women’s history in Thursday night's game against No. 23 Michigan, and could also be on pace for one of the top-10-highest-single-season point totals in IU women’s history.

“I can say she’s improved quite a bit since freshman year,” Chaplin said.

For Sinclair, the 1,000-point milestone still hasn’t quite sunk in. She’s still focused on the rest of the season.

But her fans 30 miles away in Eminence will surely never forget that Sunday night.

“I went back to the school over the summer to say ‘hi’ to some of my teachers and friends,” Sinclair said, “and all the swarm of little kids were like, ‘Aulani! Aulani!’ and wanted autographs in their little notebooks. It was cute. The town still supports me even though I’m here all the time.”