Weekly Stars of the Valleys

Amazing Performances

(St. Louis, MO) – Amazing performances took place in both the Ohio Valley and Missouri Valley Conferences. Explosive offense, double-doubles, big-time, buzzer beating heroics were all accomplished by this week’s stars of the Valleys.

Ohio Valley Conference

Belmont asserted its strength during its two conference opening games. Center Nick Muszynski averaged 18.5  points during the pair of dominant wins. The 6’11 senior played just 41 minutes during wins over Southeast Missouri and UT Martin and tallied 37 points, grabbed nine rebounds and handed out seven assists. The league’s fourth leading scorer earned his ‘Player of the Week‘ award on Monday.

UT Martin seems to rotate the ‘Newcomer of the Week‘ award around its roster. First year head coach Ryan Ridder rebuilt the Skyhawk roster and Bernie Andre is the third team member to claim the award. The 6’6 forward averaged 19.5 points during UTM’s two contests and nabbed the team’s fifth weekly notification in nine weeks.

Teammates K.K. Curry (once) and K.J. Simon (three times) were the previous winners.

Speaking of laying claim to multiple honors, Southern Illinois Edwardsville’s Ray’Sean Taylor picked up his fourth ‘Freshman of the Week‘ award. The 6’1 guard scored 24 points during a narrow home loss to Murray State. Taylor is the OVC’s leading rookie scorer and is third overall (17.3 ppg).

(Hear Murray State’s Matt McMahon’s comments about Taylor)

Nineteen of Taylor’s 24 points came after intermission and was just one of several amazing performances seen during the second half of this week’s games.

Missouri Valley Conference

Missouri State’s Isiaih Mosley had two amazing performances. Mosley’s buzzer-beating, three-pointer catapulted the Bears to a 61-59 road win at Bradley. Those heroics were dwarfed by his 43-point performance in a one point loss to Northern Iowa. Like Taylor, Mosley played his best basketball during the second half of both games. His NCAA Division 1-tieing performance included 27 second half points and earned him the Valley’s ‘Player of the Week‘ award.

Loyola jumped back into action this week. The Ramblers had been off for roughly a month with covid cancellations and LUC managed to look in mid-season form. Drew Valentine’s team knocked off top 40 (in the NET) San Francisco and then produced a come-from-behind win over Bradley.

Super-sub, and leading scorer Ryan Schwieger scored 24 points against San Francisco and added 13 during the Bradley win. Schwieger is the Valley’s ‘Newcomer of they Week‘.