Zalgiris star Jonas Valanciunas earns Round 11 MVP award

2026-11-14T12:00:56+00:00 2026-11-14T12:02:38+00:00.

Giannis Askounis

14/Nov/26 12:00

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After a dominant performance on the road for Zalgiris, 34-year-old Jonas Valanciunas gets a Most Valuable Player nod

By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net

Jonas Valanciunas has been named the Most Valuable Player for Round 11 of the 2026–27 EuroLeague Regular Season.

The Zalgiris star earned the honor after posting a performance index rating of 36 in a road victory over Armani Olimpia Milan.

Euroleague Basketball officially confirmed the award on Saturday.

Per the press release: “Jonas Valanciunas owned the glass in Milan, and Zalgiris Kaunas’s record book will never look the same. The Lithuanian center grabbed a club-record 20 rebounds, recorded the fourth-fastest double-double in modern EuroLeague history and led Zalgiris to an 83-86 win at Armani Olimpia Milan. His career-high PIR of 36 was the best of the round and earned him MVP of the Round honors for Round 11.

Valanciunas matched his career high with 17 points on 5-of-9 two-pointers and 7-of-10 free throws, and added 2 assists, 2 steals, a block and 6 fouls drawn to his 20 rebounds. That rebounding total is the most by any EuroLeague player in a game this season and the most since Nikola Milutinov also grabbed 20 on January 18, 2024. His game-high +23 plus-minus summed up his impact.

A career night from Talen Horton Tucker wasn’t enough for Fenerbahce Tarfin Istanbul, which fell 111-109 in overtime at Paris Basketball. Horton-Tucker matched his career-best PIR of 33 and poured in a career-high 32 points on 12-of-14 two-pointers, 1-of-5 three-pointers and 5-of-7 free throws. He also grabbed a career-high 10 rebounds for his first EuroLeague double-double, and added 2 assists and 6 fouls drawn.

Tremont Waters of LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne was third with a PIR of 30 in a 91-95 home loss to Besiktas Istanbul. Waters scored 26 points on 5-of-6 two-pointers and 3-of-7 threes while going a perfect 7-of-7 from the line. He also made 5 steals, handed out 3 assists, grabbed a rebound and drew 7 fouls.

Rounding out the top performers were Anadolu Efes Istanbul’s Jordan Loyd and Olympiacos Piraeus’s Evan Fournier, who each posted a PIR of 28. A second-half explosion from Loyd powered Efes to a 103-91 home win over Virtus Bologna. He scored 22 points, 17 of them after halftime, going 2-of-2 inside the arc and a career-high 6-of-7 from three-point range, and added 5 rebounds, 2 steals and 3 fouls drawn without a turnover.

Fournier matched his season high with 28 points as Olympiacos routed Dubai Basketball 101-72. The Frenchman shot 4-of-6 on two-pointers, 5-of-7 on three-pointers and 5-of-6 from the line, and added 2 rebounds, 5 assists, a steal and 2 fouls drawn. His +28 was the joint-best plus-minus of the round.

Individual highs: Jonas Valanciunas, Zalgiris, 20 rebounds

Horton-Tucker led all scorers in Round 11 with 32 points. Nadir Hifi of Paris remains the league’s top scorer at 20.8 points per game.

Valanciunas’s 20 rebounds put him in rare company and lifted him to the top of the season rebounding charts at 9.5 per game.

Trent Frazier of Virtus and TJ Shorts of Valencia Basket each dished out 10 assists, the most in Round 11. Shorts and Carlik Jones of Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade share the season lead at 6.0 assists per game.

Waters’s 5 steals were the most by any player this round. Partizan’s Luca Vildoza leads the steals chart at 1.9 per game.

Fenerbahce’s Marcus Bingham swatted a round-best 5 shots. Virtus center Aliou Diarra leads the league at 1.9 blocks per game.

There were four double-doubles in Round 11: Valanciunas (17 points, 20 rebounds), Horton-Tucker (32 points, 10 rebounds), Shorts (14 points, 10 assists), and Efes center Bruno Fernando (15 points, 10 rebounds), who needed just one half to collect those numbers.”

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