(St. Louis, MO) – Averyl Ugba is making a bid to be the both the ‘Player of the Year‘ and the ‘Newcomer of the Year‘ in the Ohio Valley Conference, while Alize Johnson, the Missouri Valley Conference’s reigning ‘Newcomer of the Year‘ is a true contender to claim the ‘Player of the Year‘ trophy in the MVC.
Ohio Valley Conference
Ugba has won or shared the ‘Newcomer of the Week‘ award four straight weeks and five times overall. This week he added the ‘Player of the Week‘ recognition for the second time. The 6’7 senior transfer from Grambling State averaged 25.5 points and 8.5 rebounds as Austin Peay split a pair of road games. 35 of those points came during the Governors’ rare road win at Jacksonville State. The home loss was JSU’s second in 11 home contests.
Dedric Boyd earned his second ‘Freshman of the Week‘ award for sparking Eastern Kentucky to a pair of road wins. The 6’4 guard averaged 20 points per game and 2.5 steals while the Colonels took care of business at UT Martin and Southeast Missouri. Boyd shared the weekly award during the season’s first week with Belmont’s Nick Hopkins.
Missouri Valley Conference
Alize Johnson – missouristatebears.com
Alize Johnson has recorded seven straight double-doubles. This week’s ‘Player of the Week‘ averaged 18.5 points and 15 rebounds as the Bears split their two games. The preseason ‘Player of the Year’ has produced 13 double-doubles this season and 30 in his two seasons with Missouri State. Johnson is the leading rebounder in the Valley, averaging 11.6 per game, but has increased that to 14.2 boards per conference contest.
Another rebounding machine, Tywhon Pickford grabbed this week’s ‘Newcomer of the Week‘ award by averaging 20.5 points and eight rebounds. The 6’4 freshman has recorded four double-doubles of his own and is second in the Valley rebounding race, nabbing 8.9 per game. Pickford scored a career high 23 points in Northern Iowa’s first conference win of the season, joining fellow rookie Austin Phyfe (20 points) to become the first pair of Panther freshmen to record 20 points in the same game in over 20 years.
Twitter Feed
Three more road wins so far in @ValleyHoops as @BradleyUMBB @BelmontMBB & @UIC_MBB capture road wins. Looks like @DrakeBulldogsMB will do so too. #FatherHarry
Well @RacersWBB followed the men's example and swept Iowa in the @ValleyHoops race! Racers are 6-1 & if @BelmontWBB holds on to their Iowa sweep, the Bruins and Racers will be tied for first. What a trip for those two teams! #FatherHarry
After today's action, @EIUWBB is 8-0 in @OVCSports play. 4 teams @usiwbb @TTUWBB @LRTrojans @LindenwoodWBB are tied at 6-2. Six other teams are under .500. Great race to the finish lies ahead. #FatherHarry
Really entertaining game between @BelmontMBB & @UEAthletics_MBB. Under four minutes left in a one point game. Gabriel Pozzato back in the Aces' lineup. Rogers is playing like I've expected. Triples are dropping. It's fun and @kylejpeach bringing it on #ThePlus #FatherHarry
