PIKEVILLE, Ky. — For the first time in five years and fourth time in school history, the University of Pikeville has swept the Mid-South Conference basketball player of the week awards as K.K. Simmons earns the men’s honor and Khalilah Quigley is the winner on the women’s side, league officials announced on Monday.
It is also the second time each player has been honored this season. Simmons grabbed the weekly honor on Nov. 17 and Quigley earned hers on Dec. 1.
At the time, Quigley’s first award snapped a four-season drought without a UPIKE player earning the weekly women’s honor.
UPIKE’s last time sweeping the MSC weekly awards was during the 2009-10 season with Trevor Setty and Natiera Hinton.
Simmons was simply on fire last week, starting off with 22 points in the 99-79 win over Ohio Christian before netting a career-high 43 points in the 107-85 MSC win against Life (Ga.). The Atlanta native made 4 of 7 threes in the first win, followed by an 8-of-12 showing from deep against Life.
It was the third time this season that the junior has hit eight threes in a game. For the week, Simmons went 20 of 33 from the field and 12 of 19 from behind the arc. He also flirted with perfection from the free-throw line, netting 8 of 8 against Ohio Christian and 5 of 6 against the Running Eagles.
The UPIKE men improved to 20-1 overall with the two wins and 7-1 in MSC play which puts them in sole possession of first place in the league standings with eight games left on the conference slate.
Quigley was hands down the most efficient player in the MSC last week, putting together a pair of balanced stat lines in non-conference wins against Ohio Christian (93-78) and West Virginia Tech (77-57). Against OCU, Quigley finished with 28 points, nine rebounds, three steals, two blocks and an assists while hitting 15-of-19 free-throw attempts.
Against Tech, the senior from Bowie, Md., wrapped with 18 points, seven boards, three assists, two steals and a block, including a 2-for-3 showing from the 3-point line.
Simmons leads the nation in threes made per game at 3.9 and is also No. 1 in total threes made with 82. Simmons’ 48.8 3-point percentage is fifth in the NAIA and his 20.5 ppg rank 11th. Quigley is 21st nationally with 17.0 ppg and ranks 29th in the NAIA in total assists with 73.
The UPIKE women are back in action at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday at Cumberland in Lebanon, Tenn., with the men’s game to follow at 9 p.m.
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