Week Eight – Stars of the Valleys

New Stars Emerging

(St. Louis, MO) – Two new stars emerged to claim the Missouri Valley and Ohio Valley Conferences’ top weekly honors. As the two Valleys finished off week eight and dove deep into conference play, new names have claimed this week’s stars of the Valleys honors.

Missouri Valley Conference

Illinois State’s Sy Chatman is proving to be a reliable force in the middle of the Redbirds’ offense. While Illinois State dropped two overtime games, Chatman was a scoring and rebounding stalwart. The 6’8 Minnesotan scored 22 points against Wisconsin and 23 at Valparaiso.

This week’s ‘Player of the Week‘ is sixth on the Valley’s scoring list (15.4 ppg) and fifth in rebounding (6.5).

Coronavirus has stripped Indiana State of some of its starters and Zach Hobbs has seized the opportunity to shine. The 6’5 sophomore sparked the Sycamores to a pair of victories by averaging 18.5 points eight rebounds during the contests. This week’s ‘Newcomer of the Week‘ is a Des Moines Area Community College transfer.

Ohio Valley Conference

Southeast Missouri split two games and its backcourt was outstanding. Eric Reed Junior and freshman Phillip Russell combined to average 44.5 points for Brad Korn’s Redhawks. Reed scored 20 points against Murray State and exploded for 34 during SEMO’s win over Austin Peay.

The OVC’s ‘Player of the Week‘ is ninth in scoring (14.3 ppg) and fifth in minutes played (31.7 minutes per game).

Russell earned his third ‘Freshman of the Week‘ award by scoring 15 points at Murray State and 20 against the Governors. Russell has topped the 20-point mark four times this season and is the OVC’s second leading rookie scorer (14.6 ppg). SIUE’s Ray’Sean Taylor (17.3) leads all freshmen scorers.

UT Martin guard K.J. Simon is this week’s ‘Newcomer of the Week‘. The Bethune-Cookman transfer earned his third newcomer award for scoring 26 points and blocking four shots during the Skyhawks only game last week. Simon’s 17.5 scoring average is second only to Murray’s Tevin Brown‘s 19.2 average in the league’s scoring race.

Stars of the Valleys is a weekly feature of Valley Hoops Insider.