MVC/OVC Players of the Week – Week Seven

Still No Multiple Winners

(St. Louis, MO) – The MVC/OVC players of the week have been announced and through seven weeks, we are yet to have a player win either league’s top player award more than once. Parity among teams and players is very real. Full out conference play begins this week.

Missouri Valley Conference

When you upset a Top-25 team, your players receive individual awards. Drake knocked off No. 15 Mississippi State and Roman Penn is this week’s Player of the Week. Penn scored 19 points during Drake’s (10-3, 1-1) biggest win of the season. The Bulldogs then scored 124 points against St. Ambrose and Penn added 12 points and four assists.

Troy transfer Duke Deen sparked Bradley (9-4, 2-0) to a pair of victories. Deen scored 26 points during the Braves’ victory over Stonehill and 14 against Akron. The 5’8 junior connected 11 times from long distance and is averaging 2.3 triples per game. Deen is the Valley’s Newcomer of the Week.

Ohio Valley Conference

When you upset a Big Ten team, your players receive individual awards. Eastern Illinois knocked off Iowa and Kinyon Hodges is this week’s Player of the Week. Hodges scored 22 points during EIU’s (4-9) biggest win of the season and its fourth ever over a power conference program. The 6’2 junior added six assists and three steals. Hodges is the OVC leader and is fourteenth nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.3).

There are now two players that have repeated as OVC Newcomer of the Week. Southern Indiana’s Trevor Lakes joins EIU’s Yaakema Rose in that category. Lakes tied an OVC and USI record with ten three-pointers during the Screaming Eagles’ victory over IUPUI. The Nebraska transfer now ranks third in the league in three-point accuracy (.457).

There are Co-Freshmen of the Week in the OVC. EIU rookie Kyle Thomas grabbed his second such honor for scoring 13 points and grabbing seven rebounds during EIU’s huge victory over Iowa. Joining Thomas is Tennessee Tech’s Grant Strong. The 6’6 guard scored 22 points, while grabbing five rebounds and dropping six dimes in a Golden Eagle victory.

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