Stars of the Valleys’ Second Last Week

Late Season Pushes Boost Profiles

(St. Louis, MO) – As the Missouri Valley and Ohio Valley Conference seasons wind down (or is it ramp up?) heading for their respective league tournaments, teams and players are making late season pushes to boost their postseason profiles.

Teams are jockeying for playoff position and players for postseason awards. Two OVC players earned their second weekly awards and one earned his first.

Ohio Valley Conference

Southeast Missouri’s Eric Reed Junior had an impactful week. The 6’2 junior scored 35 and 28 points during the Redhawks’ two games. His 35-point performance in a narrow loss to Tennessee Tech was the fourth highest point total by an OVC player this season. He then scored 28 during SEMO’s upset win over Morehead State.

Reed’s second ‘Player of the Week’ award makes him one of five league players to earn the weekly award more than once.

Tennessee Tech has guaranteed themselves a postseason bid in the league tournament with last week’s two victories. Grad transfer John Pettway had a huge hand in those two wins. The 6’3 guard scored 17 points in their high-scoring win over SEMO and 22 points during a narrow win at Austin Peay. Pettway scored Tech’s final seven points during their four-point win over the Governors. TTU’s South Alabama transfer is the OVC ‘Newcomer of the Week’.

Will Richard is the best OVC freshman that no one is talking about. There are very legitimate reasons to talk about SIUE’s Ray’Sean Taylor, Austin Peay’s Elijah Everett-Hutchins and SEMO’s Phillip Russell, but Richard earned his second ‘Freshman of the Week’ award for averaging 12 points, five rebounds and three assists during Belmont’s two victories. His 11.8 scoring average is fourth among OVC freshmen. Taylor leads the rookies with a 17.6 points per game average. Richard is second to Taylor’s freshman teammate DeeJuan Pruitt in the freshman rebounding race. Pruitt averages 6.8 rebounds and Richard 5.9 caroms per game.

Missouri Valley Conference

A.J. Green sparked Northern Iowa’s two victories that catapulted them into a first place tie. Green turned in a pair of 20-point performances, which extended his 20-point-game streak to four straight. He is now the league’s leading scorer during league-only games. The ‘Player of the Week‘ award is his third this season. Missouri State’s Isaiah Mosley has collected four.

Drake’s Tucker DeVries is running away with the league’s ‘Freshman of the Year‘ award and may also take the ‘Newcomer of the Year‘ nod. The Valley’s ‘Newcomer of the Week‘ has claimed that weekly honor three of the last four weeks. Last week the 6’7 freshman scored 16 points against Evansville and 24 in the Bulldogs’ huge win over Loyola.

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