OVC Week Nine Stars

Conference Season in High Gear

(St. Louis, MO) – Conference season is in high gear and the Ohio Valley Conference week nine stars are being honored. On the men’s side, two teams (Morehead State and Western Illinois) are undefeated (3-0) and one women’s team (Southern Indiana) has a clean 4-0 slate.

Multiple Week Nine Stars of the Week

Both men’s and women’s league’s have multiple weekly winners. Eastern Illinois’ Tiger Booker is leading a Panther resurgence and shares the OVC’s ‘Player of the Week’ award with Morehead State’s Jordan Lathon.

Booker averaged 26 points and during the Panthers’ sweep of UT Martin and Little Rock. The 5’10 senior collected 2.5 steals and leads the OVC and is fifteenth nationally averaging 2.5 thefts per contest.

Lathon averaged 26 points, five rebounds and four steals while the Eagles remained undefeated, knocking off Tennessee Tech and Tennessee State. The Grandview, Missouri native earned his second ‘Player of the Week’ honor and is the OVC’s sixth leading scorer (16.1 ppg).

Macy McGlone and Vanessa Shafford are sharing the women’s week nine honors. EIU’s McGlone is a four-time winner of the ‘Player of the Week’ award. The 6’3 junior earned her tenth and eleventh double-doubles of the season, averaging 22 points and 13 rebounds during the Panthers’ split of last week’s games.

Southern Indiana’s Shafford was also a double-double averaging performer. The 5’9 junior sparked the Screaming Eagles to a pair of wins, scoring a career high 26 points in one game and grabbing a career high 15 rebounds in the other. This is Shafford’s first ‘Player of the Week’ honor.

Newcomer Awards

Booker and Lathon also share the ‘Newcomer of the Week’ award. Booker is a Tarleton State transfer and Lathon joined Morehead from Milwaukee. His teammate Riley Minix is a three-time winner of the ‘Newcomer’ award.

Little Rock’s Leilani Wimbish-Gay has claimed three straight ‘Newcomer of the Week’ awards. The 5’10 guard averaged 13 points and 4.5 rebounds during the Trojans’ two wins. Her 18 point performance against SIUE was a new career high. She is the only Trojan to claim any weekly award this season.

Rookie Week Nine Stars

Fellow Trojan Jaylen Crocker-Johnson has now claimed four of the last five ‘Freshman of the Week’ awards. The 6’8 forward averaged 10.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and three assists as the Trojans split their two games.

Western Illinois’ Raegan McCowan is a six-time winner of the OVC’s ‘Freshman of the Week’ award. Last week he racked up her second double-double of the season and averaged 16.5 points and eleven rebounds during the Leathernecks’ split of two games.

 

Editor: Cover photo of Macy McGlone courtesy of eiupanthers.com.