By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Bojan Dubljevic was named Regular Season Round 16 MVP, EuroLeague announced on Saturday. His 30 points, 12 rebounds and 42 PIR, all career-highs, were included in the thriller that went down at Istanbul with Valencia prevailing over Fenerbahce Beko in overtime.
Per EuroLeague: “With a career-best performance on Friday that led Valencia Basket to a thrilling, come-from-behind 98-100 overtime road win against Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul, center Bojan Dubljevic has earned the first MVP of the Round honor of his Turkish Airlines EuroLeague career. Dubljevic accumulated his career-high and club-record performance index rating of 42 in a memorable game. He tied a 15-year old club record by scoring 30 points on 9-for-11 two-point, 2-for-3 three-point and 6-for-7 free-throw shooting. He also pulled down 12 rebounds, another career-high, to go with 2 assists plus 5 fouls drawn. This marks only the third time a Valencia player has earned the MVP of the Round honor. On the losing end of the same game, Fenerbahce guard Nando De Colo registered Round 16’s second-highest PIR, 37. De Colo scored 31 points, making 16 of 16 free throws while collecting 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 8 fouls drawn. The next-best index rating of the round belonged to Billy Baron of Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade, who shined with 26 points, making 4 of 4 two-pointers and 5 of 6 triples for a PIR of 34 in his team’s road win at Zenit St Petersburg. Nikola Mirotic of FC Barcelona posted a PIR of 33 based on 21 points, a career-high 15 rebounds and 2 assists in a home win over Olympiacos Piraeus. Round 16’s fifth-best performer was Real Madrid center Walter Tavares, whose 14 points and 14 rebounds, including a club-record 8 on offense, fed a career-high-tying PIR of 32 as his team beat host Panathinaikos OPAP Athens for its 11th straight triumph.
Individual highs: Nikola Mirotic, Barcelona, 15 rebounds
De Colo’s 31 points led all players in Round 16. Alexey Shved of Khimki Moscow Region remains EuroLeague’s scoring leader with 20.9 points per game. Mirotic pulled down 15 rebounds, a career-best and the most of this round. Olympiacos big man Nikola Milutinov, who missed this round due to injury, keeps the lead for the season, averaging 9.3 rebounds. Mike James of CSKA Moscow and Thomas Walkup of Zalgiris Kaunas had 11 assists apiece in Round 16. Panathinaikos point guard Nick Calathes tops the assists charts with 8.6 per game. Three players had 4 steals this round: CSKA‘s Daniel Hackett, Anadolu Efes Istanbul’s Rodrigue Beaubois and Makai Mason of ALBA Berlin. Khimki’s Stefan Jovic is the league leader with 1.6 steals per contest. Zenit’s Gustavo Ayon and Kaleb Tarczewski of AX Armani Exchange Milan led all players with 3 blocked shots this week. Real’s Tavares is EuroLeague’s top shot-blocker with 1.8 per night. There were seven players with double-doubles in Round 16. Mirotic had 21 points and 15 rebounds, Dubljevic collected 30 points and 12 rebounds, while Tavares amassed 14 points plus 14 rebounds. Tarczewski finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds, and ALBA Berlin center Landry Nnoko had 11 points plus 11 boards. James had a double-double of 17 points and 11 assists, and Walkup had his first EuroLeague double-double with 13 points and 11 assists.”