Pre-Christmas Presents

(St. Louis, MO) – The final weekly awards before Christmas were handed out by the ‘Three Valleys’ and there weren’t any surprises in the announcements. Big wins, huge performances and rising stars abound.

Missouri Valley

Wes Washpun is tacking his name right up there next to Ali Farokhmanesh in Northern Iowa folklore. The senior from Cedar Rapids put together his second explosive performance against a top ranked team this season when he scored a career high 28 points and handed out a career high 11 assists in the Panthers two-point win over Number 5 Iowa State. That performance earned Washpun the MVC’s ‘Player of the Week’ honors.

Speaking of big performances, Indiana State’s Matt Van Scyoc scored 14 second half points in the Sycamore’s road win at Saint Louis U after pacing the squad with 20 points in a home victory against Illinois-Springfield. The Citadel transfer was named ‘Newcomer of the Week’.

Ohio Valley

Chris Horton is making the most of his senior year with Austin Peay. The 6’8 center averaged 32.5 points and 15 rebounds in the Governors two games. Those double-doubles moved his Division 1 leading total of double-doubles to 10. His 37 points against Lipscomb tied for the best OVC performance this season and was the highest total for a Governor since the 2007-08 season. Horton was named the OVC ‘Player of the Week.’

Once again their were ‘Co-Newcomers of the Week’ in the OVC. The league’s hottest team, Tennessee State swept three games last week, running their current streak to seven games. A key cog once again was Navarro College transfer Wayne Martin. The 6’7 forward averaged 14.3 points and 12 rebounds over those three wins. Martin ranks 10^th nationally in rebounding with 11.5 per game.

Joining Martin as ‘Co-Newcomer’ is Tennesee Tech’s Hakeem Rogers. He averaged 20 points of Steve Payne’s bench as the Golden Eagles split a pair of games.

They may rename the OVC’s ‘Freshman of the Week’ award the ‘Nick Mayo Award.’ The 6’9 forward picked up his fourth weekly award by averaging 14.5 and six rebounds for the 8-5 Colonels. As you may expect, Mayo leads all OVC freshmen in scoring, averaging 12.9 ppg.

Great Lakes

It was a big weekend for the St. Louis based GLVC teams. Both UM-St. Louis and Maryville University swept their weekend games with Trevecca and St. Leo. Sparking UMSL was senior Brandon Marquardt. The 6’2 averaged 24.5 points by scoring a career high 26 on Saturday and responded with 23 more on Sunday. Marquardt was named the GLVC ‘Player of the Week.’

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