Ohio Valley and Missouri Valley Stars

(St. Louis, MO) – Spectacular performances highlighted the last full week of the non-conference season for Ohio Valley and Missouri Valley Conference teams (there are some OVC non-conference games left). Monday, those two leagues announced their weekly award winners.

Both leagues are facing what is anticipated to be one of the most wide-open conference races in recent years. Conference play begins Wednesday in the MVC and Thursday in the OVC.

Ohio Valley Conference

Triple doubles are the rage in the NBA and Ohio Valley Conference veteran Xavier Moon turned in the first such achievement in Morehead State’s history (15^th in OVC history) when he scored 25 points, grabbed ten rebounds and handed out 11 assists in the Eagles’ win over Central Arkansas.

The 6’2 senior followed that game with a 22 point performance against Mississippi State. Moon is the OVC’s ‘Player of the Week’, and becomes the sixth different player (in six weeks) to win the league’s weekly award.

Murray State’s Jonathan Stark has won the OVC’s ‘Newcomer of the Week’ award four times this season, but Monday it was Stark’s teammate Terrell Miller that took home the honor. The 6’8 transfer from Southwest Mississippi State recoreded a double-double (21 points and 11 rebounds) in the Racers’ only game.

Jordan Walker became the fourth different freshman to be named the OVC ‘Freshman of the Week’. The Morehead State guard averaged 12.5 points per game in the Eagles two games. Morehead hadn’t had a player win a weekly award all season, but landed two different players on the award winner list this week.

Missouri Valley Conference

Thirty point performances are becoming more prevalent and Evansville’s Jaylon Brown has turned the trick two times this season. His 39 point performance earlier in the season earned him a ‘Player of the Week’ honor and his 33 point performance last week won it for him again. Brown is leading the MVC in scoring (21.5 ppg) and is seeking to keep UE’s streak of having a player in the league’s top three in scoring since 2008. Colt Ryan and D.J. Balentine were the two players that created that streak.

Alize Johnson keeps performing at a high level and recording ‘Newcomer of the Week’ awards. The Missouri State forward averaged 17.0 points and 10.5 rebounds in the Bears’ two games. He was named to the Las Vegas Classic all-tournament team. Johnson’s weekly honor is his third of the season and during last week’s win over DePaul, the Frank Phillips College transfer recorded his sixth double-double of the season.

Seven of the ten Missouri Valley teams are playing at a .500 winning percentage or above, while just five of the 12 OVC teams are at .500 or better.

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