Weekly award winners

The Gamecocks picked up several OVC Player of the Week honors Monday.

The basketball team clinched its first berth in the OVC Tournament since 2006 over the weekend and a big part of it was due to the play of Nick Murphy and Trenton Marshall.

Murphy was Player of the Week after averaging 21.0 points, 10.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.0 steals in two games. It was his third PoW award this season. Marshall was named Newcomer of the Week for a conference record seventh time this season after averaging 18.5 points, 5.0 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.5 steals.

The Gamecocks had only had multiple players win OVC weekly honors twice in the same week during its six-year run in the league, but has already accomplished that feat with Murphy and Marshall three times this season.

The softball team won two games in the snow-shortened K-Club Classic at Kennesaw State, and out of it senior outfielder Chrissy O’Neal and freshman pitcher collected OVC honors.

O’Neal shared OVC Player of the Week honors with Southeast Missouri shortstop Renee Kertz after enjoying a pair of two-hit games. She homered, doubled and drove in three runs in a win over Indiana and had two singles and an RBI in a win over Wright State.

Phillips, who we’ve been calling the “Ider Intimidator,” shared Pitcher of the Week honors with SEMO’s Whitney Dupuis after pitching a complete-game in her collegiate debut against Wright State. She got out of a bases-loaded jam in the seventh to preserve the one-run win.