Break Out Stars

OVC & MVC Weekly Honors

(St. Louis, MO) – Multi-team events opened the door for players from the Ohio Valley and Missouri Valley Conferences to win multiple awards. While college basketball teams were scattered throughout the Western Hemisphere, there were some ‘other worldly’ performances by players from these great conferences.

Ohio Valley Conference

K.J. Williams is the OVC’s first repeat winner of the ‘Player of the Week’ award. The Murray State post player was named to the Naples Invitational ‘all-tournament team’ for leading the Racers to victories in two of three games. He recorded a double-double  against East Tennessee State and scored 29 points against Long Beach State.

Williams is the OVC’s leading scorer at 19.2 points per game and was the league’s week one winner of the weekly award.

Mamoudou Diarra is the first Tennessee Tech player to win one of this season’s league-wide weekly honors. The 6’9 junior averaged 13.5 points and 5.5 rebounds and is this week’s ‘Newcomer of the Week’. A Cincinnati transfer, he netted a career-high 21 points during a victory over Lipscomb and was a stat sheet stuffer against nationally-ranked Tennessee.

Southeast Missouri played four games last week including three at the UIW Thanksgiving Invitational. Freshman guard Phillip Russell averaged 17 points per game during the hectic Redhawk schedule. This week’s ‘Freshman of the Week’ checked in with a career-high 21 points against Montana State. Russell has recorded double-figure scoring lines in six-straight games and is the OVC’s leading rookie scorer (13.6 ppg).

Missouri Valley Conference

A.J. Green broke out in a big way. During Northern Iowa’s only game of the week, the pre-season ‘Player of the Year’ scored 35 points in the Panthers’ upset win of sixteenth ranked St. Bonaventure. His nine, three-pointers tied a program record and he junior guard is now number 14 on UNI’s all-time scoring list and is this week’s ‘Player of the Week’.

Evansville played four games last week and junior Antoine Smith Junior averaged 13.5 points per game, including a 24-point performance against Rice. The Collin County Community College transfer scored ten points during UE’s Sunday win at Eastern Illinois and is this week’s ‘Newcomer of the Week’.