Lofty Accomplishments

(St. Louis, MO) – Loyola and Valparaiso were co-victors in the Savannah Invitational and Tennessee Tech won the Emerald Coast Classic, so players from those teams took home some of the Missouri Valley and Ohio Valley Conference’s weekly hardware.

Missouri Valley Conference

Loyola’s Donte Ingram and Valparaiso’s Bakari Evelyn were part of the Savannah Invitational all tournament team and took home co-Most Valuable Player awards in Georgia, and Ingram is the MVC ‘Player of the Week’. Ingram averaged a double-double (14.7 ppg and 10.0 rpg) during the Ramblers’ three wins. Loyola is now 7-0, earning their best start to the season since 2010-11. The 6’6 senior was a preseason all Valley player.

Northern Iowa finished second in the Battle 4 Atlantis and freshman guard Tywhon Pickford exploded into prominence, averaging 12.7 points and 12.7 rebounds per game, high-lighted by an 18 point/18 rebound performance against North Carolina State. The 6’4 Pickford is this week’s ‘Newcomer of the Week’ and his 18 rebound performance was the most by a Panther since 2002.

Ohio Valley Conference

Tennessee Tech was a perfect 3-0 in the Emerald Coast Classic and Aleksa Jugovic averaged 19.3 points per game. The 6’3 guard made 11 of 16, 3-pointers and is seventh nationally in 3-point percentage (57.9%). His 31-point performance led TTU against New Mexico and he is the Ohio Valley Conference’s ‘Player of the Week’. He is the first Golden Eagle to win a weekly award this season.

Austin Peay swept the OVC’s ‘Newcomer’ and ‘Freshman’ awards this week. The Governors won a pair of games and Grambling transfer Averyl Ugba scored 31 points in the victories and is the ‘Newcomer of the Week’. The 6’7 senior also grabbed 12 rebounds and blocked three shots.

The ‘Freshman of the Week’ is Bowling Green, Kentucky native Dayton Gumm. The 6’2 guard scored 23 points in the Governors’ win over Miami of Ohio. It was his second 20-point performance of the season. He is the OVC’s second leading freshman scorer.