Explosive Stars of the Valleys

Big Performances Lead to Wins

(St. Louis, MO) – When you average 30 or more points per game, you typically win individual honors and your team wins games. That’s what happened this week as we witnessed some explosive stars of the Valleys. With just over two weeks left in the Missouri Valley and Ohio Valley Conference schedules, the season-ending awards race is heating up!

Ohio Valley Conference

Murray State’s K.J. Williams had a good week. The 6’10 junior averaged 30 points and nine rebounds on his way to the ‘Player of the Week‘ award and sparking the Racers to a pair of victories. Williams won his fourth weekly award and helped the 21st ranked Racers to a ten-point win at Tennessee State and a frantic, come-from-behind win at Morehead State. Williams’ teammate Tevin Brown has garnered the weekly honor three times.

Southern Illinois Edwardsville lost star freshman guard Ray’Sean Taylor for the season with a knee injury. Redshirt freshman DeeJuan Pruitt has stepped up his game. The 6’8 forward has been a rebounding machine since Taylor’s injury and is the OVC’s ‘Newcomer of the Week‘. He averaged twelve points and just under eight rebounds per game for the Cougars who won two games last week. The honor is Pruitt’s second in the last four weeks.

Southeast Missouri’s Phillip Russell has bounced back from illness to throw his name right back into the ‘Freshman of the Year‘ race. The St. Louis native missed some games recently, but showed up in a big way for the Redhawks last week. He averaged 23 points, five rebounds and 3.3 assists as SEMO picked up one win during their three game week. The OVC ‘Freshman of the Week‘ has brought five weekly nods back to Cape Girardeau. Taylor accumulated five before his injury and Austin Peay’s Elijah Everett-Hutchins has four.

Missouri Valley Conference

Indiana State’s Cooper Neese is one of the explosive stars of the Valleys. After granting Valley Hoops Insider an interview, the 6’4 junior then scored 75 points during the Sycamore’s next three games. They won two of them with Neese tallying 35 & 28 points. The Valley’s ‘Player of the Week’ is now fourth in the league’s scoring race (16.1 ppg) and fifth in triples-per-game (2.3 per game).

(See our recent interview with Cooper Neese)

Mikey Howell is emerging as a go-to player in the Bradley lineup. While the Braves were earning huge home wins against Loyola and Drake, the 6’3 UC San Diego transfer earned more playing time scoring 14 and 12 points to nudge the Braves into MVC title contention. BU (15-11, 9-5) is two games out of first place and Howell is the league’s ‘Newcomer of the Week‘.