Hale's career ends with broken wrist

The season is over for Southeast Missouri State University senior guard Brett Hale.

Results of an MRI on Wednesday showed that Hale's injured right wrist is fractured, as had been feared by the Southeast coaching staff. The wrist will be placed in a cast.

Hale was injured during last Friday's practice in Cookeville, Tenn., as Southeast was preparing to play Tennessee Tech the following day. He tried to brace himself during a fall, and his shooting wrist took the brunt of the impact.

Hale is Southeast's third-leading scorer at 10.3 points per game, and he was leading the Ohio Valley Conference in 3-point shooting at 55 percent (22 of 40).

"I really feel bad for Brett because it's his senior year and he was really playing well," Southeast coach Gary Garner said. "It looked like he was going to have a great year."

A former all-stater at Dexter High School, Hale has been a key contributor at Southeast since his freshman season, and he needed only 50 more points to become the 19th player in Southeast history to score 1,000 career points. He finishes his career with 950 points.

Hale, who as a sophomore averaged a career-best 13.7 points per game and led the OVC in free-throw shooting at 91.4 percent, is a chemistry education major and a Southeast Scholar Athlete.

"Brett is such a great person, a true student-athlete, and to be that close to a tremendous career milestone like 1,000 points, you feel extra bad," Garner said.

OVC reviewing incident

An OVC spokesperson said Wednesday the league is reviewing the incident during Tuesday night's 79-60 Southeast win over Eastern Illinois that led to the ejection of Panthers guard Jake Sinclair.

Sinclair was ejected late in the first half after being whistled for an intentional flagrant foul against Southeast freshman guard Paul Paradoski.

Paradoski said he believes Sinclair elbowed him in the back of his head as the two were jostling for position.

"When I had cut through, he locked my arm and kept holding me. I tried to pull away from him and moved my arm to get away," Paradoski said. "Then I got hit in the back of the head. Some of my teammates said he punched me, but I think it was an elbow."

Although Paradoski fell to the court, he was not injured and made both free throws.

"He didn't really hit me that hard. I was fine," Paradoski said.

According to the OVC spokesperson, conference policy mandates than any player or coach ejected must sit out the next game. The league will determine if any additional punishment is warranted.