Best Win

Huntington (IN) over #6 IWU

The Foresters were able to protect home court with a big win over #6 Indiana Wesleyan as Landon Biegel hit, what ended up being, the game winning 3 with 22 seconds left for the 66-63 win. The Foresters could have won the Defensive team award this week as well as they held IWU to a season low 63pts. Biegel led the Foresters in scoring with 17pts off the bench!

Upset of the Week

BenU – Mesa defeats #2 AZ Christian

BenU-Mesa moved to 12-0 on the season with the upset win over #2 Arizona Christian. The Redhawks, for us, were in our “wait and see” category as they hadn’t played a very tough schedule. However, this win shows the Redhawks are to be taken seriously! Coach Frank Woodford and the Redhawks are just 1 of 6 NAIA MBB teams who remain undefeated!

Best Game

Morningside Defeats #16 Northwestern

Morningside took down #16 Northwestern, 96-93 in OT. This was a fun game between two good programs. Jesse Van Kalsbeek had a triple-double with 24pts, 12rebs, 10assts, but it wasn’t enough as Morningside countered 22pts from Daniel Brocaille, 21 from Kaden Van Regenmorter and 20 from Caleb Dreckman. Morningside sits in 2nd place in the GPAC at 4-1. NWC is now 2-3 in GPAC play.

Best Offense of the Week

Concordia (NE)

Concordia is starting to play great basketball as they have now won 7-straight. Big part of that is their high powered and efficient offense. This week the Bulldogs averaged 95.5ppg in two wins. They shot 56% from the field, and nearly 45% from 3.

MVP of the Week

Devin Davenport – Missouri Valley

40.5ppg,7rpg, 1spg, 2bpg

Davenport set a new MVC record by scoring 50pts in MVC 92-90 loss to William Penn. He also had 31pts in a win over Central Methodist. Davenport shot 50% from the field and 47% from 3 while hitting 6 of 11 3’s in his 50pt outburst!

Defensive MVP of the Week

Devontre Chaney – Georgia Gwinnett

Chaney is quickly putting his name to the top of the CAC Player of the Year list. He is one of the best two way players in the country. This week Chaney averaged 18.5ppg, 8rebs, 5apg, 2spg, 1.5bpg. He continues to stuff the stat sheet! His dunk this weekend was also filthy!

Coach of the Week

Austin Peters – Taylor IN

3-0 Week with a road win at #11 Bethel, a Silent Night win and then a win over Goshen. This coming on the heals of a win over then #1 IWU. Coach Austin Peters has the Trojans trending in the right direction in year two at the helm! It was a finalist for Dunk of the Week, but here is how Taylor scored their 10th point in the Silent Night game!

Best Defensive of the Week

Bellevue Bruins

The Bruins locked in defensively this week as they picked up two more wins on their way to 10-0! In their two Frontier Conference wins, they held Valley City State to just 74pts (avg 81.8ppg) and held Mayville to just 70pts (avg 86.1ppg). They are 3rd in the NAIA in opponents points allowed (67.5) are 1st in opponent 3FG% (26.8).

Scottie Pippen of the Week

Gage Sefton – Grace IN

Gage continues to play a pivotal role for the top-ranked Lancers. This past week, in two wins, Gage averaged 17.5ppg, 5rpg. He had 10pts, 9rebs in the win over Huntington and followed that up with a 25pt outing, while shooting 7-9 from 3 against Spring Arbor.

Onions of the Week

Trey Morrow – Bryan TN

Morrow had 15pts in their 65-64 win over Johnson (TN). None bigger though then his final 3pts as he hit the game winning 3 with 1 second left!

Sniper of the Week

Diego Eslava – NCF

Eslava had another big week as the Sophomore scored 63pts this week including going 15-31 from 3 in those two games, including 8-19 from 3 against Florida National.

Stock Riser

Pikeville Bears

UPike has now won 7-straight games. The Bears started off the season as a preseason Top 15 team. They picked up another tough road win this weekend to move to 9-2 on the season and sit in 1st place in the AAC by two games! Starting to look like the team we thought they would be before the season started!

Rodman of the Week

Caden Pokorzynski – Aquinas (MI)

Caden has quickly become one of the best rebounders in the NAIA. In 3 games this week, he had 32 rebounds with 11 of those coming on the offensive end. He had a 20pt, 21reb double-double in a win vs Madonnna.

Sophomore of the Week

Jesse Van Kalsbeek – Northwestern IA

Hard to not give him another shout out when he almost averaged a triple double on the week! As mentioned above, Jesse had a 24pt, 11reb, 10asst triple-double in NWC’s loss to Morningside. Then in a win vs Hastings, he had 28pts, 7rebs, 11assts. This weeks averages; 26ppg, 9reb, 10.5apg.

Freshman of the Week

Otavio Armani – Park MO

Otavio is a guy we have had our eyes on since watching him in person earlier this year. The 6’5 Freshman is really good and this wasn’t even the best week he has had this season, but he has earned the nod as he has been a big reason for Park’s latest run! In 2 wins over MNU and William Woods this week, Otavio averaged 16.5ppg, 7.5rpg and 3spg. He shot 56% from the field!

Dunk of the Week

Myles Tucker – Baker KS

This was another great category this week! Myles, though, has had one of the best posters this entire season with this one vs Peru State.