By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Bojan Dubljevic was named Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season Round 22 MVP, Euroleague Basketball announced on Saturday. The 28-year-old Montenegrin big was crowned Round 16 MVP as well.
Fell way short of his 42 PIR against Fenerbahce Beko in late December. However, his 26 PIR helped Valencia get past Panathinaikos OPAP and was the highest among all players in action on Thursday and Friday.
Per EuroLeague: “In a game with plenty of meaning in the race for the playoffs, Bojan Dubljevic helped Valencia Basket secure a crucial home victory over Panathinaikos OPAP Athens – earning his second MVP of the Round award of the season in the process. The Valencia center, who also took the prize in Round 16, scored 19 points on 8-of-9 two-point shooting as his team stayed in the top half of the standings with a hard-fought 94-87 victory. Dubljevic netting 15 of his points in the first half and added 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block and 5 fouls drawn for a PIR of 26. Two players on losing teams were the next-best performers of the round: Alexey Shved of Khimki Moscow Region and Nick Calathes of Panathinaikos both had PIRs of 25. Shved had 27 points and 6 assists in a loss against CSKA Moscow, while Calathes finished with 22 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals in a loss against Valencia. Rounding out the list of round’s best performers were five players who all amassed PIRs of 23: Andrew Albicy of Zenit St Petersburg, Shane Larkin of Anadolu Efes Istanbul, Augustine Rubit of Olympiacos Piraeus, Anthony Randolph of Real Madrid and Jan Vesely of Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul.
Individual highs: Howard Sant-Roos, CSKA Moscow, 5 steals
Shved was this week’s top scorer with 27 points in defeat for Khimki, while Larkin remains the leading scorer for the season with 21.8 points per game. CSKA’s Johannes Voigtmann was the top rebounder in Round 22 with 14 boards. Nikola Milutinov of Olympiacos Piraeus is still the overall leader with 8.1 per game. Sergio Rodriguez of AX Armani Exchange Milan topped this week’s assists chart with 10, and Calathes remains easily the top overall assister in the competition with an average of 9.6. Howard Sant-Roos was another big performer for CSKA in the derby win over Khimki, making a week-high 5 steals. Pierria Henry of KIROLBET Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz tops the steals rankings with 1.8 per game. Walter Tavares was back in the blocking zone with 5 rejections for Real in a key road win at Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv, and he leads the season block charts with 2.2 per game. Four players claimed double-doubles this week: Calathes (22 points, 10 rebounds), Voigtmann (15 points, 14 rebounds), Tavares (11 points, 10 rebounds) and Zenit’s Gustavo Ayon (16 points, 10 rebounds).”