KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The academic accolades continue to pile up for Centenary College athletes as recent Gents basketball graduate James Sapp was named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches' (NABC) Honors Court.
According to the NABC, the "Honors Court recognizes the talents and gifts that these men possess off the court and the hard work they exhibit in the classroom." To receive this distinction, an athlete must be an NCAA or NAIA athlete, be an academic junior or senior, and have a cumulative GPA of 3.2 or higher.
On the court his senior season, he became the first player to lead the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference in both scoring and rebounding in nine seasons and received his second SCAC Player of the Year award (2015). He is only the third player - and second Gent (Jonathon Blount, 2013 and 2014) - to win multiple Conference Player of the Year accolades and the first to accomplish this feat in non-consecutive seasons.
In 2016-17, Sapp earned two All-American nods after he led the SCAC with 21.5 points and 10.1 rebounds per game, ranking 34th and 41st in the country, respectively. He finished the season with 15 double-doubles and his career with 38, the second-straight season averaging a double-double.
Sapp was also named All-Louisiana for the second time in his career. Adding to his Third Team recognition in 2014, he became the first Gent to appear on the First Team in three seasons.
With 263 rebounds this season, he broke the SCAC career record and finished his career with 953 boards With 1,551 career points, he became only the fifth Gent and the first player in conference history to eclipse the 1500-point and 900-rebound marks.
This season, he scored the seventh-most points (43) in a single game in program history in a 98-95 loss against Texas Lutheran January 22. He was named SCAC Player of the Week on November 28 and February 20, receiving that honor eight times in his Gents career.
Besides his Louisiana, SCAC, and All-America awards, Sapp earned South All-Region distinction by both D3Hoops.com and the National Association of Basketball Coaches.