MVC/OVC Repeating Stars

All Weekly Winners have Won Before

(St. Louis, MO) – All six of the Missouri Valley and Ohio Valley Conference weekly award winners are repeating stars. Each player has been awarded these honors and least one previous time. In Lindenwood University’s Jadis Jones’ case, it is SIX previous times.

Player of the Week Repeating Stars

For the first time all season, a Missouri Valley Conference player has received a second ‘Player of the Week’ award. This week’s first of the repeating stars is Drake’s Bennett Stirtz. The 6’4 junior averaged 21 points, 6.5 assists, 3.5 steals and 3.5 rebounds during the Bulldogs’ (18-2, 8-2) two victories. Stirtz leads the Valley in scoring (17.7 ppg), assists (6.45), assist/turnover ratio (3.58) and steals (2.55).

Southern Illinois Edwardsville’s Ray’Sean Taylor is the Ohio Valley Conference’s only player to receive multiple ‘Player of the Week’ honors. This is Taylor’s third of the season. The 6’1 graduate student averaged 23 points during the Cougars (14-7, 7-3) pair of victories. He has now reached the twenty-point mark in five straight games and leads the OVC with an 18.9 points-per-game average.

Crowded Newcomer Race

Belmont’s Carter Whitt joins teammate Jonathan Pierre and Indiana State’s Samage Teel as Valley’s the only multiple ‘Newcomer of the Week’ winners. While Teel has claimed three awards the Belmont duo each have two. Whitt averaged 16 points, 8.5 assists and 5.5 rebounds for the surging Bruins (15-6, 7-3). The 6’3 graduate student is third behind Stirtz and Murray State’s JaCobi Wood averaging 5.1 assists-per-game.

Tennessee State’s Brandon Weston is the third OVC player to rack up a second ‘Newcomer of the Week’ award. The 6’5 junior accumulated 41 points during the Tigers’ (9-12, 5-5) two-win-week. Weston leads the OVC and is fourth nationally with 127 made free throws.

Freshmen Repeating Stars Abound

Gabriel Pozzato is beck! The Evansville rookie missed numerous games with injury and has been working his way back to top shape and last week averaged 17 points and 6.5 rebounds as the Purple Aces split a pair of games. Pozzato won the Valley’s first ‘Freshman of the Week’ award and now joins Valparaiso’s All Wright and Bradley’s Jaquan Johnson as a multi-week honoree.

However, in the Ohio Valley Conference the ‘Freshman of the Week’ award should be re-named to the ‘Jadis Jones Invitational. The Lindenwood rookie averaged 11.5 points and five rebounds and claimed his SEVENTH weekly honor. LU teammates Clayton Jackson (2) and Al Tounkara (once) have also claimed the weekly honor. SIUE’s Cham Okey is the only non-Lion winner.

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Editor: Cover photo of Drake’s Bennett Stirtz, courtesy of godrakebulldogs.com.