Stretch Run Weekly Honors

Thinking About Annual Awards

(St. Louis, MO) – With only two games left for most teams in the Missouri Valley and Ohio Valley Conferences, the ‘stretch run weekly honors’ could be something that pushes a player all the way over to an ‘end-of-the-season’ award.

Tennessee Martin’s Matas Deniusas has sown up the OVC’s ‘Freshman of the Year’ award already, but he claimed another weekly honor anyway. The races for other annual awards are much closer.

Scoring races in each league are all but over and each conference’s top rebounder and assist accumulator seem fairly secure too. How voters will handle very balanced races and narrow statistical margins will be an interesting study.

All statistics unless otherwise noted are ‘conference only’ numbers.

Stretch Run Top Players

Southern Illinois’ sweep of the Iowa schools was sparked by Quel’Ron House’s overall play and key baskets. The Valley’s fifth leading scorer (15.4 ppg) is a two-time ‘Newcomer of the Week’ and this week claims his first ‘Player of the Week’ nod. House is the twelfth different MVC player to earn the league’s top weekly honor.

Grabbing his fourth ‘Player of the Week’ award places Tennessee State’s Aaron Nkrumah in an enviable spot for ‘Player of the Year’. He leads the OVC in this category, he’s third in scoring (18.3) and second in steals. He scored 40 points during two TSU victories and hauled in sixteen rebounds.

Newcomer List Is Crowded

Ejjah Crawford is making a late push to become the MVC’s ‘Newcomer of the Year’. This week the UIC sophomore is receiving his second straight and third of the last five weeks, ‘Newcomer of the Week’ award. UIC split a pair of games and Crawford averaged 16 points, seven assists and 3.5 rebounds. He recorded a double-double against Evansville and scored 20 points against Valparaiso. His third weekly acknowledgement ties him with Valpo’s Owen Dease.

Southern Indiana’s Amaree Brown becomes the fourteenth OVC newcomer to be named the ‘Newcomer of the Week’. Brown’s stretch run has been impressive. Last week he tallied 40 points and made 83 percent of his 18 free throws. While the Oklahoma Panhandle State missed the Screaming Eagles first fourteen games he has reached double figures in eleven of his 14 games.

Freshmen Successful Stretch Run

Ever since Roger Powell Jr. became the head coach at Valparaiso, freshmen make big headlines. The program boasts of the last two ‘Freshman of the Year’ awards, and this week’s weekly winner, J.T. Pettigrew earned his third ‘Freshman of the Week’ award. Valpo swept their two games and Pettigrew averaged 16.5 points and 5.5 rebounds. While Murray State’s Roman Domon has been selected four times, Pettigrew and Belmont’s Eoin Dillon have been named three.

Pettigrew is the Valley’s third leading rebounder (7.1).

Deniusas’ eleventh ‘Freshman of the Week’ honor is tied for second in OVC history. He trails last year’s winner and record setter, Jadis Jones (Lindenwood) by one. Deniusas averaged 11.5 points and 6.5 rebounds for the week. For the season, the 6’8 forward is among the lead leaders in scoring, rebounds, three-point baskets and blocks.

Do Good

 

Editor: Cover photo of Quel’Ron House, courtesy of siusalukis.com