MVC/OVC Award Winners

Freshmen Repeaters

(St. Louis, MO) – There are two freshmen repeaters among this week’s MVC/OVC award winners. Tennessee Martin’s Matas Deniusas has claimed all three of the Ohio Valley Conference rookie honors and Valparaiso’s Rakim Chaney has taken two of the Missouri Valley Conference’s three notifications.

Hitting game winning shots and posting double-doubles will get players noticed and that’s what we have this week.

MVC/OVC Players of the Week

Northern Iowa senior Trey Campbell led the Panthers (5-0) to a pair of victories. The second win came in overtime as Campbell hit a driving, game-winning bucket with less than a second on the clock. He finished with 19 points after netting 15 during the team’s win over Northern Illinois. Campbell is the Valley’s ‘Player of the Week’ and the Panthers are 5-0 for the first time since the 2019-20 season.

Morehead State split two games and guard Davion Cunningham recorded two, twenty-point performances (21 and 23). The Eagles (3-4) are the OVC’s third-most prolific offense and Cunningham leads the squad with a 12.29 points-per-game average. This week’s OVC ‘Player of the Week’ scored 20 of his forty-four points from the charity stripe.

Newcomers Shining

Illinois Chicago’s Mekhi Lowery recorded two double-doubles during UIC’s two games at the Boardwalk Battle. The Towson transfer grabbed exactly ten rebounds in each of the Flames’ games and the Valley’s ‘Newcomer of the Week’ scored 13 and fifteen points while averaging 4.5 assists in those contests. These were the first MVC weekly winners for both UIC and UNI.

Morehead’s Cunningham is a first-year OVC player, transferring from UNC Asheville and is the conference’s ‘Newcomer of the Week’. Cunningham leads the Eagles in minutes played and free throws made.

MVC/OVC Freshman Repeaters

Valparaiso has claimed the last two Missouri Valley Conference ‘Freshman of the YEAR’ awards and Beacon rookie Rakim Chaney is making an early bid to make it three straight. The 6’3 guard picked up his second straight ‘Freshman of the Week’ honor by scoring 23 points, grabbing four boards and handing out seven assists in Valpo’s only game. Chaney leads the Valley with an 18.4 points-per-game scoring average and a .536 completion rate from long distance.

Lindenwood’s Jadis Jones made last season’s OVC ‘Freshman of the YEAR’ award a ‘no contest’. He won virtually every weekly rookie award. Tennessee Martin’s Matas Deniusas has claimed the first three ‘Freshman of the Week’ honors. Last week he averaged twelve points and four rebounds per contest. He was also named to the Pensacola Invitational all-tournament team. Deniusas is averaging thirteen points per game and is second in the OVC in free throw percentage (.867).

 

Editor: Cover photo of Rakim Chaney, courtesy of valpoathletics.com.