Stretch Drive Performances

Rhymes Heating & Cooling Hot Players of the Week

(St. Louis, MO) – The stretch drive of conference seasons is bringing out the best in the players of the Ohio Valley and Missouri Valley Conferences. As teams battle for the top spots in both of these conferences, there were some amazing performances last week.

Ohio Valley Conference

In a year of incredible achievements last week might have topped them all. The play was so exceptional by the league’s best players that they dwarfed great accomplishments by others. Dylan Windler averaged 26 points and eleven rebounds in two Belmont victories. He’s not an award winner. Eastern Kentucky’s Nick Mayo averaged 29 points and 11.5 rebounds in the Colonels’ two games and he too is not taking home the trophy.

Co-Players of the Week

Austin Peay’s Terry Taylor was exceptional. The 6’5 sophomore recorded the OVC’s highest scoring game (42 points) this season in a Governors’ win over Morehead State. He averaged 33.5 points and 13 rebounds. The reigning ‘Freshman of the Year‘ grabbed a career high and best in OVC this season, 18 rebounds in that game. Taylor is this week’s ‘Co-Player of the Week’. He scored 25 points in APSU’s narrow loss to Murray State.

In that first place battle, Murray’s Ja Morant scored 32 points. This week Morant became the all-time, single season assist record holder (256) recorded his 1,000th career point. He shares the weekly award with Taylor. Against Mayo’s EKU squad, the 6’3 sophomore recorded his sixteenth double-double and earned his 12^th game of 20 or more points and ten assists. No other D1 player has achieved that feat more than three times.

Taylor has received four weekly awards and Morant has seven.

The hottest team not among top four teams in the OVC, is UT Martin. The Skyhawks have won four straight games and this week junior Craig Randall recorded a pair of 16 point games and averaged five rebounds and 4.5 assists as his team moved into a tie for seventh place. Randall, a Duquesne transfer, is the tenth different OVC player to be named ‘Newcomer of the Week’.

Eastern Illinois’ Ben Harvey averaged 22 points per game, including a career-high 29 points against Southeast Missouri. That was the second best freshman scoring performance in EIU history. Harvey, this week’s ‘Freshman of the Week’, earning the Panthers’ sixth weekly award. Sophomore Josiah Wallace has earned three ‘Newcomer’ awards and Shareef Smith earned it once while Mack Smith earned the ‘Player’ award.

Missouri Valley Conference

For the 4th time in seven weeks the Valley has combined its ‘Player and Newcomer of the Week’ award. It’s the fifth time overall. This week’s winner, Tulio Da Silva has turned the trick two times. With the Bears thriving during the stretch drive, the Missouri State forward averaged 16.5 points and eight rebounds per game as the Bears moved into a tie for first place.

The 6’9 Da Silva scored 16 points and grabbed a team high nine rebounds in MSU’s narrow, pivotal road win at Loyola. He also blocked three shots in the 65-61 victory at Gentile Arena.