By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Ante Žižić continues to impress in the BKT EuroCup. The Besiktas GAIN Istanbul center earned MVP honors for Round 14 after a thrilling 103–99 road win over Cosea JL Bourg-en-Bresse, posting a PIR of 34 — the best of the round.
Žižić scored 26 points on near-perfect shooting (9-of-10 inside the arc, 8-of-10 from the line), adding 4 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block, and drawing 8 fouls to lead Besiktas past the Group B leaders. With this performance, he joins Jared Harper (Hapoel Midtown Jerusalem) and Bryce Jones (Aris Thessaloniki Betsson) as the only players with multiple Round MVP honors this season, and becomes just the second Besiktas player after Mire Chatman to achieve this.
Other top performers included Fatts Russell (U-BT Cluj-Napoca) and Christopher Ledlum (ratiopharm Ulm), both with PIRs of 30. Russell fueled Cluj’s 103–92 win over Veolia Towers Hamburg with 23 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists, while Ledlum led Ulm past NINERS Chemnitz with 23 points and 4 assists. Carl Wheatle (Umana Reyer Venice) and Zacharie Perrin (Hamburg) rounded out the top PIRs with 29.
Chris Horton (Umana Reyer Venice) led all rebounders with 14 boards in a 103–76 home win over Slask Wroclaw. Austin Wiley (Hapoel Midtown Jerusalem) leads the competition in rebounds with 8.9 per game. Corey Davis Jr. (NINERS Chemnitz) and Yogi Ferrell (Buducnost VOLI Podgorica) each recorded 10 assists, while Arnas Velicka (Neptunas Klaipeda) tops the league overall with 7.1 per game.
On defense, Justin Simon (ratiopharm Ulm) led the round with 4 steals, while Dogus Ozdemiroglu (Turk Telekom Ankara) is the season leader at 2.3 per game. Niklas Wimberg (Hamburg) had 3 blocks in Round 14, with Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu (BAXI Manresa) leading the season in blocks (1.64 bpg), slightly ahead of Wiley (1.58 bpg).
Eight players recorded double-doubles this round: Yogi Ferrell, Chris Horton, Corey Davis Jr., Kevin Yebo (Chemnitz), Denzel Valentine (Reyer), Malik Osborne (Ulm), Karel Guzman (Cluj), and Zacharie Perrin (Hamburg).