By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Euroleague Basketball officially confirmed on Friday that Hapoel Midtown Jerusalem’s forward-center Kenneth Lofton Jr. has been named the Most Valuable Player for Round 3 of the BKT EuroCup Regular Season.
The 24-year-old powerhouse secured the honors after putting together an unstoppable performance index rating of 33, lifting his team to a thrilling road victory over Recoletas Salud San Pablo Burgos at the Coliseum Burgos on Wednesday.
Per the press release: “Kenny Lofton Jr. came up big in a tight one. The Hapoel Midtown Jerusalem forward led his team to an 84-85 road win over Recoletas Salud San Pablo Burgos and claimed MVP of the Round honors for Round 3 with a PIR of 33.
Lofton scored 28 points on 9-of-12 two-point shooting, 1-of-1 from three-point range and a perfect 7-of-7 from the free-throw line. He added 6 rebounds and drew 7 fouls, posting the highest PIR by any player on a winning team in Round 3.
Joel Scott of the London Lions matched Lofton’s PIR of 33, but in a 76-81 home loss to Skyliners Frankfurt. Scott had 16 points on 3-of-4 two-pointers, 1-of-1 from deep and 7-of-8 free throws, plus 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 9 fouls drawn.
Marcus Domask of BOSNA BH Telecom Sarajevo followed with a PIR of 31 in a 102-93 road loss to ratiopharm ulm. Domask scored 24 points on 5-of-6 two-pointers, 3-of-5 three-pointers and 5-of-5 free throws, adding 5 rebounds, 4 assists, a steal and 4 fouls drawn.
Ismael Bako of Turk Telekom Ankara and Darius Brown of Dolomiti Energia Trento each posted a PIR of 30 to round out the top performers. Bako had 16 points on 4-of-6 two-pointers and 8-of-9 free throws, plus 10 rebounds, an assist, 2 steals, 2 blocks and 5 fouls drawn in a 75-65 road loss to Umana Reyer Venice. Brown, the Round 1 MVP, had 21 points on 4-of-8 two-pointers, 3-of-3 three-pointers and 4-of-4 free throws, adding 4 rebounds, 9 assists, 4 steals and 3 fouls drawn in Trento’s 80-88 home loss to NINERS Chemnitz.
Individual highs: Cobe Williams, Chemnitz, 30 points
Williams led all scorers in Round 3 with 30 points in Chemnitz’s road win at Trento. Timmy Allen of Kids&Us Manresa leads the EuroCup at 22.0 points per game.
Amedeo Tessitori of Reyer and Reggie Perry of BOSNA shared the rebounding lead with 12 boards apiece. Jeremiah Robinson-Earl of Aris Thessaloniki leads the season standings at 10.3 rebounds per game.
Otis Livingston of U-BT Cluj-Napoca was the only player to reach double digits in assists, handing out 10 in a 75-94 road win over Siauliai Basketball. Nick Calathes of PAOK Thessaloniki leads the EuroCup at 6.7 assists per game.
Four players made a round-high 4 steals: Brown, Jeff Dowtin of Napoli Basketball, Isaih Moore of Slask Wroclaw and RaiQuan Gray of PAOK. Dogus Ozdemiroglu of Turk Telekom leads the competition at 3.3 steals per game.
Race Thompson of Skyliners blocked a round-high 4 shots against London and leads the EuroCup at 3.5 blocks per game.
Perry (19 points, 12 rebounds), Bako (16 points, 10 rebounds) and Ivan Tkachenko of Riga Zelli (12 points, 10 rebounds) were the only players to record a double-doubles in Round 3.”
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