Exceeding All Expectations

(St. Louis, MO) – Specatacular performances high lighted last week’s Missouri Valley and Ohio Valley Conference games and two players all-but sowed up the two conferences’ yearly awards.

Missouri Valley Conference

Drake senior Reed Timmer blew up the league last week. The Bulldogs’ all-time leading scorer ripped Indiana State for 39 points and then scored 20 points, including a game-winning four-point-play against Missouri State. Timmer is Valley’s ‘Player of the Week’ and Drake (16-13, 10-6) has moved into third place.

Milik Yarbrough picked up his fifth ‘Newcomer of the Week’ award by recording back-to-back 25 point games while adding nine assists in Illinois State’s win over Northern Iowa. Yarbrough’s hold on the yearly award is virtually a done deal. The Saint Louis University transfer is the only player in the country to average as much as 16.8 points, 6.4 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game.

Ohio Valley Conference

What a week for Belmont’s Dylan Windler! The 6’7 junior recorded the first-ever Belmont 30/20 performance when he scored 36 points and grabbed 20 rebounds against Morehead State. The OVC’s ‘Player of the Week’ is the conference’s leading rebounder (9.2 per game) and Belmont (22-7, 14-2) is tied with Murray State for the OVC’s top spot.

Averyl Ugba snared his incredible eighth, weekly ‘Newcomer of the Week’ award and has a stranglehold on the annual award. Ugba averaged 17.5 points and 9.5 rebounds as Austin Peay split a pair of games. The Grambling transfer has recorded eight double-doubles and is the first OVC newcomer to earn as many weekly awards.

Southeast Missouri player Denzel Mahoney won last year’s ‘Freshman of the Year’ and the Redhawks’ top freshmen this season, Ledarrius Brewer earned his first ‘Freshman of the Week’ award for sparking SEMO to a pair of wins by torching Eastern Illinois for a career high (and best scoring performance by an OVC freshman this season) 34 points and followed that up with a 25 point performance in Saturday’s win over Southern Illinois Edwardsville. Brewer leads all freshmen scorers (in conference games) with an average of 16.7 points per game.