Murray State University Athletics
Witherspoon, Redding earn OVC Player, Newcomer honors
1/10/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Murray State is off to a 2-0 start in the Ohio Valley Conference after home wins over Morehead State and Murray State. Shawn Witherspoon and Issian Redding are two reasons why.
Witherspoon, a Sophomore from Oviedo, FL was named OVC Player of the Week, and Redding, a junior from Sandusky, OH was named OVC Newcomer of the Week in voting by the league's Sports Information Directors.
Witherspoon had a career game last Thursday when the Racers defeated Morehead State 83-61.
He nearly matched his career high of 15 in the first half when he scored 14 points. By the end of the night, Witherspoon had 33 points on 13-17 field goal shooting and 6-8 from the free throw line. He also matched his career high with eight rebounds.
Witherspoon followed that with 16 points against Eastern Kentucky Saturday night, a game the Racers won 80-78 in overtime.
Redding is getting better and better as the games go by after joining the Racers from South Plains, TX junior college.
Against Morehead State, he scored 12 points and grabbed 7 rebounds.
Two nights later against Eastern Kentucky, Redding came off the bench and scored a career high 17 points.
During his weekly media conference, Head Coach Mick Cronin praised his two stars. "Issian and Shawn didn't worry about their shots, they went to work playing defense and rebounding the ball and when they do that, they get more oportunities to score and then scoring takes care of itself."
The Racers hit the road for the next three games.
They play at Samford Thursday at 7pm, then travel to play Jacksonville State Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
The Racers stay on the road with a Tuesday, Jan. 18th game at Tennessee-Martin at 7:30 p.m.
