Photo - Dave Winder, MSU Athletics
Murray State’s Jonathan Stark was named as the CollegeInsider.com Lou Henson Mid-Major National Player of the week for the week of February 5-11. Stark helped the Racers to a pair of wins last week when they defeated Austin Peay at home and then SIUE on the road to push their win total to 20 and their winning streak to seven. MSU is 12-2 in the Ohio Valley Conference and sits with a share of first place.
He started the week with a 27-point night against APSU in hitting 12-of-18 from the field. At SIUE, he hit 14-of-16 from the free throw line to finish with 28 points.
For the week, Stark averaged 27.5 points on 53 percent shooting and 90 percent shooting from the free throw line. Stark showed that he could still be a potent scorer even when the 3-point shot is not falling. He went 3-of-14 from long range, but hit 15-of-20 from two-point range for an amazing 75 percent.
The Lou Henson Award is presented annually to the top Mid-Major player in Division I college basketball. Stark is considered a candidate for the end-of-season Henson All-America Team as well.
The award is named in honor of Lou Henson who retired after a spectacular coaching career that lasted 41 years. When he left the game in 2005 he was sixth all-time in career Division I wins with 779. He is the winningest coach at both Illinois and New Mexico State. He is one of only 12 coaches in the history of the game to take two schools to the Final Four.
(Courtesy MSU Athletics)
