Final OVC Weekly Awards

Next Up – Evansville

(St. Louis, MO) – A wild final week of the Ohio Valley Conference season brings us our final OVC weekly awards. The men’s awards were dominated by players from the league’s tri-champions, UT Martin, Little Rock and Morehead State and two of the three women’s awards went to players we’ve seen there before.

The Ohio Valley Conference Basketball Championships start Wednesday in Evansville, Indiana. The Ford Center will host both the men’s and women’s tournament, beginning with a women’s double header Wednesday afternoon.

Final Players of the Week

UT Martin won a pair of games to claim their one-third share of the OVC regular season title. Junior guard Jordan Sears averaged 31 points during the two victories, including 34 in Saturday’s title clinching victory. Sears claimed his fourth ‘Player of the Week’ honor and finished the season as the OVC scoring leader (21.2 ppg). He is second in the OVC in assists (4.5 per game) and made the sixth most three-point baskets (74).

Eastern Illinois’ Macy McGlone claimed her seventh ‘Player of the Week’ award as the Panthers split their two games and finished in a three-way tie for second place. McClone registered a pair of double-doubles and averaged 18 points and fourteen rebounds and eclipsed the 1,000 point scoring mark. McClone has hauled in 371 rebounds this season, which is a new EIU record.

Newcomers

Two players battling for the ‘Newcomer of the Year’ award will share this week’s ‘Newcomer of the Week’ title. Morehead State’s Riley Minix (seven times) and UT Martin’s Jacob Crews (five times) have had sensational seasons. Minix sparked the Eagles into that three-way time for the men’s title by averaging 18 points and twelve rebounds. The Southeastern University transfer has posted 18 double-doubles.

Crews averaged 23 points and eight rebounds and won his third straight weekly honor. While Minix’s Eagles have claimed two straight OVC crowns, this is first Skyhawk title since 2009. Minix is sandwiched between UTM teammates Sears and Crews in the scoring race. Crews averages 19.3 points per game and Minix tallies 20.5.

The final OVC weekly awards end the way they started for Little Rock’s Jordan Holman. The Trojan guard was the ‘Newcomer of the Week’ back in the first week of the season and her career high 21 points earned her the final ‘Newcomer of the Week’ award.

Are They Really Freshmen Anymore?

Another first place team is represented in the ‘Freshman of the Week’ award. Little Rock’s Jaylen Crocker-Johnson claimed his ninth rookie award. While he averaged just eight points and 6.5 rebounds during the Trojans’ two games, he sparked his team to its first-ever OVC championship. The Trojans are the OVC Tournament’s top seeded team.

Tennessee Tech’s Kyle Layton had a big week averaging twelve points and four rebounds. His two double-digit scoring outputs were just his fourth and fifth of the season and third in-a-row. His ‘Freshman of the Week’ award is just the third earned by a Golden Eagle this year.

Ho-hum, Western Illinois’ Raegan McCowan is the OVC ‘Freshman of the Week’. The 5’11 guard has claimed thirteen of the 17 weekly rookie awards. She averaged 17.5 points and 6.5 rebounds during the Leathernecks’ two victories and earning a .500 record during their first season in the OVC.

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Editor: Cover photo courtesy of utmsports.com.