BRENTWOOD, Tenn. (ESPN CLARKSVILLE) — Senior Averyl Ugba, of the Austin Peay State University men’s basketball team, has been named adidas® Ohio Valley Conference Co-Player of the Week, as well as Newcomer of the Week for the third time this season and second time in as many weeks.
The Silver Spring, Maryland native averaged a double-double (19.0 ppg, 10.5 rpg) on 60.7 percent (17-of-28) shooting in wins against SIU Edwardsville and Eastern Illinois last week, as the Govs got out to their first 2-0 start in Ohio Valley Conference play since the 2013-14 season.
Against SIU Edwardsville, Ugba scored 13 of his 15 points during a game-changing 28-9 run to close the half, kicking off the run with eight straight points en route to a career-best 21 and 10 rebounds. He followed that up with 17 points and a career-best 11 boards against Eastern Illinois.
Over his past eight games, Ugba has kicked it up a notch, averaging 14.0 ppg and 8.1 rpg and hitting 52.3 percent (46-of-86) from the floor.
This award marks Ugba’s first Player of the Week honor as a Gov and the first by a Governor since John Murry for the week of Feb. 20, 2017. He’s the first player in the league since Eastern Illinois’ Montell Goodwin (Feb. 13, 2017) to win Newcomer and Player of the Week honors in the same week and the first Gov to pull double-duty since Tyshwan Edmondson (Jan. 24, 2011). A Governor has now won at least one of the triumvirate (Player, Newcomer or Freshman) of OVC weekly honors in six of the last seven weeks.
The Govs bring a six-game homestand to an end this week, hosting UT Martin (6 p.m., Thursday on CBS Sports Network) and Southeast Missouri (7 p.m., Saturday).