Newcomers Rule Deaux Vallees

(St. Louis, MO) – Newcomers are leading the way in the Missouri Valley and Ohio Valley Conferences. It was a difficult weekend for the Deaux Vallees, but some individuals still managed to stand out during the season’s third week.

Missouri Valley Conference

In an odd turn of events, in naming the Valley’s Player of the Week, they named co-players of the week and they were both newcomers, so they were also the co-newcomers of the week.

For the second time in three weeks the league announced a newcomer as the player of the week. This week it was two of them. Bradley freshman Darrell Brown has taken the Valley by storm by setting a Braves’ rookie scoring record of 34 points. The performance was the first freshman to top 30 points since Doug McDermott’s 31 points during the 2010-11 season. The Memphis native added 26 more points over the final two games of the Gulf Coast Showcase.

Brown’s co-player of the week was Loyola forward Aundre Jackson. The junior college transfer averaged 18.5 points per game and six rebounds over the Ramblers’ two games. Loyola split games with Washington State and North Carolina State. Jackson has reached double figures in all seven of his Division 1 games. This is the second straight week for Jackson to be named the Newcomer of the Week.

Ohio Valley Conference

Eastern Kentucky’s Nick Mayo is this week’s OVC Player of the Week. The 6’9 sophomore was named to the Cancun Challenge all tournament team and averaged 20.3 points and 8.3 assists during the Colonels’ three games. The reigning Freshman of the Year also averaged 3.7 assists.

Jonathan Stark has made it a three week sweep of the OVC’s Newcomer of the Week award. The Murray State junior averaged 22.5 points in the two Racer contests. Stark is second in the league in scoring (20.8) and assists (5.8) and leads the OVC in three-pointers per game (4.0).

Speaking of repeaters, Southern Illinois Edwardsville’s Christian Ellis has taken home the Freshman of the Week honors in back-to-back weeks. The 6’2 guard averaged 11.5 points, 3.5 assists and 3.0 rebounds in the Cougars’ two games.

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