Eastern Illinois Dominates the Awards

(St. Louis, MO) – Eastern Illinois dominates this week’s Ohio Valley Conference awards In a limited schedule the Panthers defeated Northern Alabama and a number of Panthers performed at a high level. The Missouri Valley weekly awards will be announced on Wednesday.

Ohio Valley Conference

The Smiths were particularly good for EIU. Mack, a member of the last year’s ‘all-newcomer team’ notched 21 points, including six clutch free throws in the final minutes of the Panther win. EIU’s leading scorer is this week’s ‘Player of the Week’ for Jay Spoonhour’s team that won two more non conference games than last season.

Shareef Smith shares this week’s ‘Newcomer of the Week‘ award with UT Martin’s Quintin Dove. Smith added 20 points to Mack’s 21 as EIU (7-6) moved to 3-1 at Lantz Arena. Smith handed out six assists while reaching double figures in scoring for his third straight game.

Dove earned his second weekly award for scoring 20 points in the Skyhawks’ Sunday loss to Bowling Green. The junior transfer is averaging 11.8 points per game and converting over 82 percent of his free throw attempts.

Another EIU Panther earned the ‘Freshman of the Week‘ award. Cam Burrell recorded his first collegiate double-double (11 points and ten rebounds) in the Sunday afternoon win. Burrell’s stellar performance came on just his fifth college game.

Conference play begins Thursday, but for this week Eastern Illinois dominates.