MVC Release
 
ST. LOUIS – Missouri State forward Tulio Da Silva (Jr., Formiga, Brazil) was named Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week and Newcomer of the Week, the league announced Monday.
 
Da Silva, a transfer from South Florida, helped engineer a pair of Valley road victories for the basketball Bears last week, posting two 20-point scoring efforts and his first double-double at MSU.
 
He began the week with game-highs 21 points and eight rebounds at Indiana State on 10-of-13 shooting with 3 assists in a 72-57 MSU win in Terre Haute. He continued that momentum at Bradley on Saturday, logging game highs 24 points, 13 rebounds and four steals in a 69-64 come-from-behind victory.
 
For the week, he averaged 22.5 points and 10.5 rebounds while converting 19-of-25 (.760) field goal attempts. He is the top newcomer in The Valley in both scoring (16.2) and rebounding (6.9) averages.
 
It is just the 18^th time since the league began recognizing a Newcomer of the Week recipient in 2003-04 that a player has won both awards in the same week. Missouri State now has four of those with Da Silva joining Alize Johnson (Nov. 14, 2016 and Jan. 2, 2017) and Blake Ahearn (Jan. 12, 2004) to that elite list.
 
Johnson was also the last MSU player to earn MVC Player of the Week, doing so three times last season. J.T. Miller (Jan. 1, 2018) was the last Bear to earn MVC Newcomer of the Week.
 
Missouri State looks to keep its winning streak alive Wednesday when the Bears host Evansville at JQH Arena with a 7 p.m. tipoff. Tickets for the Evansville game are available now at MissouriStateBears.com or by visiting the Old Missouri Bank Box Office at JQH Arena, (417) 836-7678, during regular box office hours.