MVC/OVC Weekly Honors

Final Awards of the Season

(St. Louis, MO) – The regular season’s final week was filled with star performances and dramatic conclusions. League titles were determined and tournament seeding established, and some individuals truly stood out. The MVC/OVC weekly honors went to players with standings shifting performances.

Arch Madness and the OVC Championships start this week and these teams now begin March Madness with conference tournament action in St. Louis and Evansville.

Ohio Valley Conference

Lindenwood’s Kevin Caldwell Jr and his teammates staged two of the most dramatic come-from-behind victories to earn a trip to the conference tournament. Caldwell’s buzzer beating triple secured season finishing, overtime victory. The 5’11 guard scored 26 in the finale and 18 in an equally thrilling win over Southeast Missouri. That game went into double overtime.

This week’s ‘Player of the Week‘ made nine triples over the course of the Lions’ 2-0 week. Caldwell’s leadership during the playoff earning Saturday afternoon win was palpable.

Another hero of those Lindenwood wins was senior guard Chris Childs. The New York native converted 17 of 18 free throws during the overtime games. Many of those came in crunch time in both games. Childs scored 25 against SEMO and 20 against Little Rock. Childs shares this week’s ‘Newcomer of the Week‘ award with Morehead State’s Alex Gross.

(See our story on Lindenwood & Southern Indiana)

Gross averaged a double-double (13 points and 11 rebounds) as the Eagles wrapped up the regular season title. The 6’10 grad student blocked seven shots during Morehead State’s win over UT Martin. The ‘Newcomer‘ award was Childs’ second and Gross’ first.

Eastern Illinois didn’t qualify for the league tournament, but the Panther program owned the ‘Freshman of the Week‘ award. This week’s winner, Sincere Malone is the fourth Panther to earn one of the weekly rookie awards. Cameron Haffner (five times), Kyle Thomas (three) and Kyle Carlesimo are the others. EIU players claimed this award in ten of sixteen weeks.

Missouri Valley Conference

Southern Illinois’ Lance Jones broke out of an offensive slump in a big way. The senior guard dropped a season-high 28 points on Northern Iowa and another 19 against UIC in the season finale. SIU’s two victories pushed them to the third seed for Arch Madness and Jones is the ‘Player of the Week‘.

Belmont freshman Ja’Kobi Gillespie helped spark the Bruins to one of the greatest comebacks in Belmont home history. Gillespie scored 24 points against Northern Iowa and 16 during the Bruins’ wild comeback win against Indiana State. The ‘Newcomer of the Week‘ helped guide Belmont to an 89-88 win after trailing by 17 points at the half.

This is our final edition of the MVC/OVC Weekly Honors.

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