By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
The first MVP honors of the new Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season are well-earned by Baskonia‘s Pierria Henry, whose performance paced the team to victory against fellow Spanish powerhouse Real Madrid on Friday.
Per EuroLeague:
The opening week of the new season concluded with an MVP of the Round performance from Pierria Henry, who fired TD Systems Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz to victory over Spanish rivals Real Madrid.
Henry was everywhere in his team’s 76-63 win, registering a personal-best 32 PIR by hitting 5 of 7 two-pointers among a career-high 23 points. His 6 assists were only 1 short of Real’s entire team total, further contributing to the first MVP award of Henry’s EuroLeague career.
The next best individual performance came from Simone Fontecchio of ALBA Berlin, who paired 16 points with 8 rebounds for a PIR of 27 in his team’s loss at Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv. One of his opponents, Angelo Caloiaro had a PIR of 25 after he scored 18 points in Maccabi’s victory. He went 5 for 5 on both two-pointers and free throws, and his 3 steals matched Caloiaro’s career-high. Kevin Pangos also had a PIR of 25, masterminding Zenit St Petersburg’s road upset of Anadolu Efes Istanbul. Pangos scored 23 points, his career-high in four EuroLeague seasons. He also led Zenit with 7 assists. The opening week’s list of top performers is completed by FC Barcelona’s Alex Abrines, who had a PIR of 22 by combining 13 points, a career-high 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 steal in his team’s victory over CSKA Moscow.
Individual highs: Jalen Reynolds of FC Bayern Munich, 11 rebounds
Henry and Pangos were the joint top scorers in Round 1 with 23 points. Jalen Reynolds of FC Bayern Munich led all rebounders with 11, while Vasilije Micic of Efes was the top distributor with 9 assists. Barca’s Nikola Mirotic led the way with 4 steals, and four players had 3 blocked shots: Achille Polonara of Baskonia, Zenit’s Arturas Gudaitis, Jordan Mickey of Khimki Moscow Region and Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul’s Johnathan Hamilton.
Photo: EuroLeague