Weekly Award Winners

(St. Louis, MO) – Conference races are taking shape and outstanding performances are rolling in to the Ohio Valley and Missouri Valley Conference. A surprising sweep of Kentucky by Southern Illinois Edwardsville was sparked by the stellar play of one senior and Murray State and Drake remained undefeated behind senior guard play.

Ohio Valley Conference

Jalen Henry scored a career high 35 points at Eastern Kentucky and then turned in a double-double at Morehead State to spark SIUE to their first ever OVC two-game road sweep. Henry is the league’s third leading scorer and is this week’s ‘Co-Player of the Week‘. The 6’6 senior is sixth in rebounding for the Cougars (6-9, 2-2).

Sharing this week’s honor of ‘Co-Player of the Week‘ is Murray State’s Jonathan Stark. The senior guard has earned at least a share of the weekly award for three straight weeks. The OVC’s preseason ‘Player of the Year‘ averaged 29 points per game in the Racers’ two wins. MSU (12-3, 4-0) is tied with Austin Peay atop the OVC race.

Speaking of Austin Peay, Governor forward Averyl Ugba has picked up his third straight ‘Newcomer of the Week‘ (fourth overall) by averaging 13 points and nine rebounds during the Governors’ two home victories.

Ugba shares this week’s ‘Newcomer‘ award with Tennessee Tech’s Shaq Calhoun. The 6’4 grad transfer exploded for 37 points as Tech split two games.

Winning his fourth weekly award as ‘Freshman of the Week‘, Terry Taylor is placing himself as the odds on favorite to win the yearly award. The Austin Peay forward averaged 22 points per game during the Governors’ two victories. APSU (9-7, 4-0) has earned five of the weekly awards as Taylor has garnered four such nominations and Dayton Gumm the other.

Missouri Valley Conference

First place Drake (10-7, 4-0) won at home (Illinois State) and on the road (Indiana State) to become the Valley’s only undefeated team. Senior guard, Reed Timmer, the league’s leading scorer, dropped 28 points on the Redbirds and contributed 18 against the Sycamores. The 6’1 guard is this week’s ‘Player of the Week‘ and has moved into second place on the Drake all-time scoring list.

Missouri State (13-4, 3-1) fell from the ranks of the undefeated as they split a pair of games, but grad transfer J.T. Miller averaged 14.5 points and 8.5 rebounds en route to earning this week’s ‘Newcomer of the Week‘ award. The Howard University transfer is one game shy of playing in 100 career games.