Stars Are Emerging in MVC and OVC

(St. Louis, MO) – Stars continue to emerge in the Ohio Valley and Missouri Valley Conferences. Newcomer Asante Gist took two honors this week and Captain Morgan is continuing his superlative season. Just prior to the final portion of the non-conference season several teams are becoming the obvious favorites for conference titles.

Ohio Valley Conference

Eastern Kentucky’s Asante Gist became the first freshman in three years to be named OVC ‘Player of the Week’. The East Orange, New Jersey native averaged 21.5 points and five assists as the Colonels split a pair of games. Gist, a high school teammate of Wichita State’s Markis McDuffie connected for the winning free throws in the EKU victory. Gist was also named the OVC’s ‘Freshman of the Week’.

The rapidly improving Muusa Dama is this week’s OVC ‘Newcomer of the Week’. The Moberly Junior College transfer, who has been playing basketball less than five years, has been improving by the day. After five games the Benin native was averaging less than seven points per game. In the Panthers’ last five games he has averaged over 11 points per contest. Last week Dama averaged 12 points, 9.5 rebounds and three blocks per game. The 6’9 junior leads the OVC in blocks (2.2 per game) and is second in rebounding (9.8 per game).

Missouri Valley Conference

Preseason ‘Player of the Year’ Jeremy ‘Captain’ Morgan is continuing is MVP type season. Saturday ‘The Captain’ came within two points of tieing the Northern Iowa single game scoring mark. The 6’5 senior scored all 38 of his points in UNI’s win over North Dakota. After scoring a season-low six points against George Mason three games ago, the Coralville, Iowa native has averaged 25 points per game.

Missouri State’s Alize Johnson took down his second ‘Newcomer of the Week’ award by recording a pair of double-doubles. Johnson continues to make shots at a spectacular rate. He leads the MVC in rebounding (8.1 per game) and is second in shooting percentage (.629).

Johnson and Loyola’s Aundre Jackson have dominated the ‘newcomer’ award so far this season.

Jackson’s Ramblers and Wichita State have each won four straight games and own matching records of (9-2). On the OVC side, Tennessee State (7-2) and UT Martin (8-3) are off to great starts and Belmont (4-3) has won three straight games.

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