By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
J’Covan Brown was named 7DAYS EuroCup Regular Season Round 11 MVP, Euroleague Basketball announced Thursday.
Brown, 32, tied the competition record for the most assists in a single game by dishing out 16 as Hapoel Vegan Friendly Tel Aviv topped Paris in Shlomo Group Arena Wednesday night. Adding 17 points and eight rebounds helped build up the MVP-clinching PIR of 33.
The experienced guard extended the streak of Hapoel Tel Aviv players standing out as the MVP of the Week following Jordan McRae’s nods in Round 9 and Round 10. In a spectacular debut EuroCup season, Brown previously shared the Round 2 MVP award with Ovie Soko and Joe Young.
Per the press release: “J’Covan Brown led Hapoel Vegan Friendly Tel Aviv to a 95-79 win over Paris Basketball and in the process earned his second MVP of the Round honor in his just ninth appearance in the competition. His performance will enter the history books because Brown tied the EuroCup single-game record with 16 assists, joining Omar Cook who set the mark in November 2014. Brown was also just shy of achieving a triple-double, finishing the game with 17 points and 8 rebounds. He made 2 of 3 two-pointers and 4 of 7 threes. Brown’s PIR of 33 was the highest in Round 11, and this marks the fifth time this season a Hapoel player earns MVP award.
The round’s second-best PIR, 31, belongs to Paris big man Ismael Kamagate after collecting 17 points and 12 rebounds. Yago Dos Santos of ratiopharm Ulm had a performance index rating of 30. In a victory over 7Bet-Lietkabelis Panevezys, he had 21 points, 8 assists and 6 rebounds. Lukasz Kolenda of Slask Wroclaw had a PIR of 29 with 23 points, 4 assists and 3 rebounds in a road loss against Buducnost VOLI Podgorica. Rounding out the list of Round 11’s top performers is Sam Dekker of London Lions, who had 23 points and 10 rebounds for a PIR of 28 in a road win over Dolomiti Energia Trento.
Individual highs: Alen Omic, Cedevita, 14 rebounds
Yogi Ferrell of Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana led all scorers with 27 points. Joe Young, recently released by Promitheas Patras, remains this season’s top scorer with 23.4 points per game. Ferrell’s teammate Alen Omic had 14 rebounds, the most in Round 11. Buducnost center Alpha Kaba is this season’s top rebounder with 11.4 per game.
MVP Brown had 16 assists, tying an all-time high. Brown leads the EuroCup with 8.0 per game. Petar Popovic of Buducnost, Tyrone Wallace of Paris and Luke Nelson of London each had 4 steals in Round 11. Jeremiah Martin of Slask tops the steals charts with 2.9 per game. Hapoel’s Chinanu Onuaku led all players this round with 3 blocks. Kamagate is EuroCup’s top shot-blocker averaging 1.9 blocks.
There were 10 double-doubles in Round 11. Alongside Brown, Jerian Grant of Turk Telekom had a double of 18 points and 10 assists, while the others came in points and rebounds: Kamagate, Dekker, Omic (10 points, 14 rebounds), Kaba (11 points, 13 rebounds), Turk Telekom’s Tyrique Jones and London’ Kosta Koufos (each 14 points, 10 rebounds), Onuaku and Ondrej Balvin of Prometey Slobozhanske (each 10 points, 10 rebounds).”
Furthermore, McRae banking in a crazy shot for the team based in Tel Aviv ranked first in the Top 10 Plays of the week.
Photo Credit: EuroleagueBasketball.net