Cream Rising to the Top?
(St. Louis, MO) – Legacy players seem to be taking over and key newcomers are locking in post season honors. In this week’s MVC/OVC weekly awards, veteran guards are reminding people why they’ve been stars for years and key transfers continue to prove their value.
Ohio Valley Conference
Four-time all conference guard Jr. Clay will become the first OVC FIVE-TIME all conference player at the end of the season. He may also be the league’s ‘Player of the Year’. Clay is this week’s ‘Player of the Week‘ and is now a two-time winner of the weekly award. The Tennessee State (16-11, 8-6) guard sparked the Tigers to two more wins last week by scoring 23 and 16 points and grabbing eight and seven rebounds. Clay added five assists and he and SEMO’s Phillip Russell are tied as the OVC’s top dishers of dimes (5.2 per game).
Southern Illinois Edwardsville’s Damarco Minor claimed his third ‘Newcomer of the Week‘ award. The Cougar guard averaged 19 points and eight rebounds as SIUE (17-10, 8-6) split last week’s games. Minor is the first OVC newcomer to claim the honor three times and is the league’s second most accurate free throw performer (.880).
Eastern Illinois guard Cameron Haffner has a stranglehold on the ‘Freshman of the Year’ award. The Westfield, Indiana native earned his fourth ‘Freshman of the Week‘ award while averaging 10.5 points per game. EIU (9-18, 5-9) swept its two games and moved into the eighth and final OVC playoff spot.
Missouri Valley Conference
Drake’s Roman Penn is the Bulldogs’ career record holder of assists and is this week’s ‘Player of the Week‘. The 6’ grad student averaged 19.5 points, five rebounds and 5.5 assists during Drake’s two victories. Drake (21-6, 12-4) has won seven straight games and Penn is the Valley’s eleventh most prolific producer of career assists (569).
Indiana State’s Courvoisier McCauley claimed his second straight (third overall) ‘Newcomer of the Week‘ award. McCauley averaged 18 points per game and the Sycamores (18-9, 11-5) won both of their games. The 6’5 DePaul transfer ranks sixth in the MVC scoring race (16.7 ppg) and he and Belmont’s Drew Friberg are approaching the league’s record for most three-pointers by a first year conference performer.
Missouri State’s Adam Leonard owns the record with 103. Friberg (88) and McCauley (83) rank in the top seven in MVC history.
MVC/OVC weekly awards is a weekly feature of ValleyHoopsInsider.com.
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As we near the closing of the portal window, we've reached 1900. Some of them never to play college basketball again, earn a college degree and some to play at a much lower level than they did last season.
I guess we'll be seeing this in a @RacersHoops uniform this year. Glad AJ is staying in the @ValleyHoops.
