BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – Following a pair of bigtime performances in a 72-hour span, the Ohio Valley Conference announced University of Tennessee at Martin guard/forward Jacob Crews as its Newcomer of the Week today.
This marks the third career OVC weekly honor for Crews, who also swept OVC Player and Newcomer honors on Nov. 20. He becomes only the 17th player in Skyhawk history to win the OVC Newcomer of the Week award multiple times.
A Hilliard, Fla. native, Crews averaged 28.0 points on a shooting slash line of .556/.500/.864 in a pair of games last week. He canned 15 of his 27 field goal attempts, including a 7-for-14 performance from three-point land. He also did a fair share of his damage at the free throw line, swishing 19 of 22 tries from the charity stripe. He also added 8.5 rebounds per contest in a split against Western Illinois and Little Rock.
Crews’ best game came on Saturday in a win over Little Rock as he went off for a career-high 35 points (the second-highest point total for any OVC player this season) to go along with seven rebounds. After the Skyhawks trailed by five points early in the second half, he pumped in 10 points during a crucial 14-0 run. Moments later after UT Martin found itself trailing by one point with 4:50 to go, he generated buckets on back-to-back trips down the floor and the Skyhawks never trailed again.
Two days earlier against OVC leader Western Illinois, Crews accounted for 21 points (on an efficient 6-of-10 shooting), 10 rebounds and a career-best two blocks. It marked his fifth double-double of the season, which ranks third in the OVC.
Crews currently ranks in the top-10 in the OVC in three-point field goal percentage (.436, second), three-point field goals per game (2.8 per outing, second), scoring (18.1 points per game, third), field goal percentage (.505, fifth), rebounding (8.2 per contest, sixth) and free throw percentage (.785, 10th).
UT Martin returns to the hardwood on Thursday, Jan. 18 when it travels to Morehead State. Tipoff against the OVC rival is set for 6:30 p.m. CT.
