Weekly Award Winners – Finishing Strong

Rhymes Heating & Cooling Hot Players of the Week

(St. Louis, MO) – The regular season has come to an end for the Ohio Valley and Missouri Valley Conferences and a large number of players are finishing strong.

This week’s Rhymes Heating & Cooling Hot Players of the Week provided some spectacular play in the season’s final week.

Ohio Valley Conference

Jacksonville State’s Jason Burnell put the finishing touches on what should be an first team, all-conference season by winning the ‘Player of the Week’ award. The 6’7 senior produced two, double-doubles and scored 30 points in the Gamecock’s finale. JSU’s win at Southern Illinois Edwardsville secured a third place finish in this year’s race. Burnell is the OVC’s second leading rebounder (9.6 per game) and averages 17 points per game.

If you want to talk about finishing strong, look no further than this week’s ‘Newcomer of the Week’. UT Martin’s Craig Randall II earned the award for the third straight week by averaging 16.5 points and five rebounds while the Skyhawks swept the competition and earned their way into the OVC postseason tournament. UTM was 1-and-7 in OVC play before Randall was activated and they’ve gone 5-and-5 since then.

Eastern Kentucky’s Jomaru Brown is the OVC’s second leading rookie scorer at 14.4 points per game. This week he earned his third ‘Freshman of the Week’ honors by averaging 24 points, 5.5 assists and three steals during the Colonels’ two games. While Brown scored a season-high 30 points against Morehead State, it was his 17 points and NINE assists that sparked EKU to a two-point win over Austin Peay.

Missouri Valley Conference

Southern Illinois’ Armon Fletcher is on a tear! The Edwardsville, Illinois native scored 60 points in two games last week. He’s averaging over 22 points per game over his last six and is this week’s ‘Player of the Week’. Known as a scorer, Fletcher has taken his glass work to another level. Last week he grabbed 17 rebounds and has averaged over eight caroms per contest over that same six game stretch.

Cooper Neese is finshing strong. The Indiana State freshman put up a pair of 14-point games last week. This week’s ‘Newcomer of the Week’ has now reached double figures in scoring in seven of his last eight games. He had accomplished that feat four times in his previous 14 outings.

Post season awards for the two conferences will be announced this week.