OVC/MVC Lucky 13 Weekly Award Winners – Breaking! Huibregste on USBWA National List!

Futrell & Lions Surging

(St. Louis, MO) – Lucky 13 weekly award winners played major roles in winning important games in the Ohio Valley and Missouri Valley Conferences. League races are very competitive, though both first place teams now have two-game leads in the standings.

The pressure to finish in the top four or two in the OVC and in the top five or three in the Valley is important for postseason tournament seedings. Lindenwood (14-9, 8-4) won two road games last week and the Lions are tied with Southeast Missouri and Morehead State for third, fourth and fifth place. The Lions placed two players among the OVC’s ‘lucky 13’ weekly award winners.

Sixth place Southern Illinois Edwardsville (14-9, 7-5) visits Lindenwood on Tuesday.

 

Lucky 13 Players of the Week

Two outstanding performances by Lindenwood’s Anias Futrell propelled the Lions to those two road victories. Futrell recorded a double-double in one game and hit the game-winning free throws in the other. He averaged 23 points and 10.5 rebounds during LU’s two wins and earned his second straight ‘Player of the Week‘ award. It’s his third overall. He is the league’s top scorer (21.1 ppg) during league contests.

Bradley (15-8, 8-4) is in a three-way tie for second in the MVC and Alex Huibregtse is a big reason why. The 6’4 guard scored 29 points, making nine, three-pointers during the Braves win over Drake. This week’s Valley ‘Player of the Week‘ missed just one of his long range attempts.

Now Huibregste has been added to the USBWA National players of the week honors.

Newcomers Starring

Futrell’s teammate Milos Nenadic recorded a double-double of his own. The Maine transfer scored 19 points, blocked ten shots and fell one rebound short of a triple double. He averaged 19.5 points for the week and is the OVC’s ‘Newcomer of the Week‘.

Drake’s Jalen Quinn scored 32 points during his team’s loss to Huibregtse and Bradley and added 26 against Evansville. This week’s ‘Newcomer of the Week‘ leads the Valley in conference game scoring averaging twenty points per game. The Loyola transfer is also amongst the league-leaders in field goal percentage and assists.

Freshmen Winners

We are so used to typing out UT Martin forward Matas Deniusas’ name down for this weekly honor, that we almost did it today, but surprise! It’s his teammate Damien King nabbing the lucky 13 weekly honor. King made the most of just his second and third starts of the season. He averaged twelve points and five rebounds during the Skyhawks’ two victories. This week’s ‘Freshman of the Week‘ also contributed six assists.

The absences of Nic McClain and Sam Orme have opened a wider door for Belmont red-shirt freshman Eoin Dillon. His third straight ‘Freshman of the Week‘ award comes after he averaged 19 points, three rebounds and 3.5 assists during Belmont’s two victories. The 6’9 wing is leading the Valley in three-point percentage with an other-worldly .563 accuracy rate.

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