By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Alessandro Gentile was named 7DAYS EuroCup Regular Season Round 9 MVP. Dolomiti Energia Trento needed the “W” in Poland over Asseco Arka Gdynia and the MVP of the Week delivered with a massive display. The 27-year-old Italian swingman went for 37 points behind 14/22 field goals putting together 39 PIR, good enough for the MVP nod.
Per EuroCup: “The penultimate round of the 7DAYS EuroCup Regular Season saw the number of Top 16 qualifiers rise to as many as 12 teams while others survived to fight for the same privilege into Round 10. That was the case of Dolomiti Energia Trento, for whom veteran forward Alessandro Gentile broke several records to earn the MVP of the Week honor for Round 9. Faced with elimination in the event of a defeat, Gentile led Trento to a 78-85 road win at Asseco Arka Gdynia with a career-high performance index rating of 39, which included a personal-best 37 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 9 drawn fouls. His point total was the EuroCup’s highest since March of 2018 and his 13 two-pointers made in 20 attempts tied the competition’s highest total in almost five years. Following Gentile, Zach Auguste of Galatasaray Doga Sigorta Istanbul had a PIR of 31, but his team lost on the road at Buducnost VOLI Podgorica. Auguste had a double-double of 16 points and 13 rebounds plus 2 assists and 2 steals. The top five individual performances of the week were completed by Hassan Martin of Buducnost (PIR 29), Carlos Suarez of Unicaja Malaga (27) and Dejan Todorovic of MoraBanc Andorra (26).
Individual highs: DJ White, Tofas, 4 blocks
Gentile’s 37 points were not Round 9’s highest total but also the best by any player so far this season. Meanwhile, Alex Hamilton of Maccabi Rishon LeZion remains the EuroCup scoring leader with an average of 22.4 points. Under the glass, together with Auguste, Devin Williams of Tofas Bursa also pulled 13 boards for the best mark this week. Johnathan Hamilton of Darussafaka Tekfen Istanbul sits at the top of the rankings with 9.1 rebounds per game. Justin Cobbs of Buducnost and Mantas Kalnietis of Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar led all passers this week with 9 assists apiece, while Limoges CSP’s Semaj Christon leads the rankings despite having missed the last two games with 8.0 on average. On the defensive end, four players collected as many as 4 steals each: Hamilton of Rishon, Dee Bost of AS Monaco, Raymar Morgan of UNICS Kazan and Will Cummings of Lokomotiv. Trento’s Aaron Craft, who returned to action after injury, still leads the steals rankings with 2.8 per game. DJ White of Tofas led all shot blockers with 4 in Round 9. he one to have the most stops, 4, this week. Johnathan Hamilton of Darussafaka is still the season leader with 1.9 blocks on average.”
Photo Credit: EuroCup