Brzoja named 6th Man of the Year, Mockevicius Defensive POY
 ST LOUIS –Two more major Missouri Valley Conference awards will be coming to Evansville as Mislav Brzoja was named the MVC 6thMan of the Year while Egidijus Mockevicius picked up the MVC Defensive Player of the Year Award.
Brzoja becomes the third University of Evansville player to earn Sixth Man of the Year honors, joining Curt Begle (1999) and Ned Cox (2012). He came off the bench to play in all 31 games, seeing an average of 24.1 minutes per game.
One of the top 3-point shooters in the MVC, Brzoja connected on 40.3% of his attempts. His top game of the year came in the exciting win at Southern Illinois as he scored a career-high 25 points. That game saw him drain 9 of his 12 attempts, including 4 of his 5 triples. Those efforts saw UE overcome a late deficit to pick up an important overtime victory.
Mockevicius has been not just one of the top defenders in the Valley, but the nation as a whole. He leads the NCAA with 14.0 rebounds per game and is the ONLY player in the country to average over 10 defensive rebounds per contest. Entering Arch Madness, Mockevicius has hauled in 11.52 defensive caroms per game.
He also sits atop the NCAA with 26 double-doubles in 31 games. He has two more than anyone else and has registered nine in a row. He has recorded 10 or more rebounds in 28 out of 31 contests. Mockevicius’ work has not only been stellar on the glass, he has also performed exceptional in shot blocking.
Averaging 2.84 blocks per game, he leads the MVC and is 8th in the country. He will finish his career second in conference history with his block total while his tally of 1,218 boards is just 29 behind Larry Bird for 4th place in the conference record books. He is the first Evansville player to be named the MVC Defensive Player of the Year.
Both of the honorees and their teammates are working to prepare for Arch Madness as they open up on Friday at 6 p.m. against either Drake or Missouri State.
