MAC Announces Men's Basketball Players of the Week
MAC Men’s Basketball East Division Player of the Week
Richaun Holmes, Bowling Green, Forward
Senior, Lockport, Ill. (Lockport)
Holmes led the Falcons to two wins on the week and pushed BGSU to 4-0 to start the season. The 6-8 forward led the Falcons in scoring, rebounding and in blocked shots in both contests for the Falcons on the week. In the home win over SEMO on Tuesday, Holmes had a team-high 14 points and seven rebounds in 30 minutes of play. He followed that performance with a career day on Sunday at Detroit, in which he matched his career-high in points with 26 and hauled in a new career-high 18 rebounds in the win. On top of his five blocks in the contest, Holmes also hit the game-winning layup as time expired to give the Falcons the 64-63 road win over the Titans. His 26 point/18 rebound performance was his first double-double of the season and the ninth for his career. For the week, Holmes averaged 20 points, 12.5 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per contest on 61.5 percent shooting from the field overall.
MAC Men’s Basketball West Division Player of the Week
Chris Fowler, Central Michigan, Guard
Junior, Southfield, Mich. (Detroit Country Day)
Fowler played an instrumental role in helping Central Michigan remain unbeaten (5-0) and head coach Keno Davis attain his 100th career win on Saturday night in the Chippewas’ 79-77 victory over Grand Canyon. Fowler scored a game-high 26 points, just one shy of his career high, shooting 67% from the field (10-of-15). He proved unstoppable late in the game, scoring 9 points in the final 5:18 to keep Grand Canyon at bay and secure the program’s best start to a season since 1980-81. Fowler also added a game-high 4 assists in addition to 3 rebounds. He took care of the ball as well, turning the ball over just once in 35 minutes of play at the point. Fowler, who fronts the conference’s No. 2 scoring offense (82.2 ppg), leads CMU in scoring (13.6 ppg) and ranks No. 1 in the MAC in assists (7.4 apg) and third in assist/turnover ratio (2.5).
Other Top Performances
Deji Ibitayo, Akron, Guard
Senior, Chicago, Ill./Rich Central High School
Ibitayo led the Zips to 1-1 record last week, averaging 14.5 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game. In Akron’s 78-72 loss at Penn State, Ibitayo scored a career-high 17 points to go with six boards. He made a career-high eight free throws, going 8-of-9 at the line. In Akron’s 72-66 win over Bryant, Ibitayo led a second-half charge scoring all 12 of his points in the final 20 minutes. He tacked on six rebounds and two steals. He is shooting a career-high .880 from the charity stripe this season (22-of-25), the 55th-best percentage in the nation.
Jeremie Tyler, Ball State, Guard
Freshman, Indianapolis, Ind. (Arsenal Tech)
Tyler scored a game-high 18 points in Ball State’s only contest last week, leading the Cardinals to an 88-46 win over Grambling State. The freshman guard knocked down 7 of 13 shots from the floor, including 4 of 7 from 3-point range. He helped to key an offensive attack that saw Ball State knock down 14 shots from beyond the arc, the most for the program since 2006. Through four games of his collegiate career, Tyler ranks fourth in the MAC in scoring at 16.3 points per game this season.
Justin Moss, Buffalo, Forward
Junior, Detroit, MI (Romulus)
Moss had another huge week for the Bulls as he averaged 22.0 points and 10.5 rebounds during UB’s two games this past weekend, both on the road. Moss began the week on Tuesday evening at Grand Canyon where he scored a career-high 26 points, including 18 in the second half. Moss also added nine rebounds as he helped the Bulls to an 80-64 victory. On Saturday against Canisius, Moss recorded his second double-double of the year with 18 points and 12 rebounds as he went 7-of-11 from the floor. The performance from Moss helped UB to another comfortable victory as they beat Canisius, 72-57. Moss leads the Bulls this season, averaging 17.6 points per game and 9.2 rebounds per contest. He has scored 88 points through the first five games of the year, just 21 points shy of his entire total from last year.
Darrell Bowie, NIU, Wing
Junior, Milwaukee, Wis. (La Jolla Prep)
Bowie helped fuel NIU’s 21-point comeback victory over Maine with a season-high 16 points and nine rebounds as the Huskies outscored the Black Bears 28-2 in the final 10:40 to earn a 61-56 victory. Bowie scored eight points with four rebounds in the final 10:40 to help NIU improve to 3-1 for the first time since 2006-07. Earlier in the week, Bowie played just 20 minutes due to foul trouble at Iowa but finished with nine points on 4-of-8 shooting. For the week Bowie averaged 12.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game.
Javarez “Bean” Willis, Ohio, Guard
R-Sr., Homer, La./Humble (Texas) Christian Life Center Academy
Willis (Homer, La.) averaged 20.5 points over two games to lead the Ohio men’s basketball team (2-2) last week in addition to shooting at a team-best .571 (16-of-28) clip – including a team-best .450 (9-of-20) from three-point range. He has reached double figures in scoring in all three games he has played in 2014-15 and 13 times in his career. Willis totaled 16 points off of 6-of-9 shooting -- including 4-of-7 from three-point land -- as the Bobcats bested Arkansas-Pine Bluff, 69-60, last Tuesday (Nov. 25) at the Convocation Center. He also contributed five rebounds and a team-high four assists as well as adding two steals in 34 minutes. Willis followed that effort up by totaling a career-high 25 points to lead Ohio on Saturday (Nov. 29) in an 83-81 loss to Belmont at the Convo, knocking down a career-high 10 field goals and matching his career high by converting five of his three-point attempts. The contest marked the second time he has exceeded the 20-point mark in a game at Ohio. Willis is averaging a team-best 19.3 points per game and is shooting at a team-best .538 (21-of-39) clip -- including .385 (10-of-26) from three-point range -- this season.
Jonathan Williams, Toledo, Guard
Sophomore, Southfield, MI (Southfield-Lathrup)
Williams led the Rockets with 15.3 ppg in three games last week and set career scoring personal bests in his final two contests. He posted a 51.7 FG% (15-of-29), including a 44.4 (8-of-18) mark from three-point range, and shot 88.9 percent (8-of-9) from the charity stripe. Williams tallied 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting against Detroit before notching a career-high 19 points on 5-of-9 shooting at Oakland.
David Brown, Western Michigan, Guard
Senior, Roscoe, Ill. (Hononegah)
Brown averaged 13.8 points, 4.5 assists, 4.0 rebounds, and 3.3 steals per game in the Broncos’ week at the DirecTV Wooden Legacy. The senior guard was instrumental in the team’s wins, scoring 11 points in WMU’s double-digit victory over San Jose State and making the play of the game in the come-from-behind win over San Diego. Brown scored four of the team’s final eight points in their 8-0 run to take the lead, including the game-winning lay-up with 1.1 seconds remaining to seal the win for the Broncos. He scored a game-high 21 points in the first game against the Toreros, doing so on Monday, and reached double-digits in three of four games on the week.
