By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
CSKA Moscow’s Tornike Shengelia captured the MVP title of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season Round 2, Euroleague Basketball announced Saturday.
Shengelia, 30, starred for CSKA Moscow in the away win versus defending champion, Anadolu Efes, on Friday. He made out his team-high 23 points with 7/8 from the field. The 29 PIR generated by his effort was the highest among all players in action this week.
Scottie Wilbekin of Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv earned the Round 1 MVP award.
Per the press release: “On the road against the reigning Turkish Airlines EuroLeague champions, CSKA Moscow forward Tornike Shengelia stepped up and led his team to a thrilling 96-100 win over Anadolu Efes Istanbul, earning MVP of the Round honors. Shengelia accumulated a performance index rating of 29, the highest of all players in Round 2. He scored 23 points, his highest in a CSKA uniform, making 5-of-5 two-point shots, 2-of-3 triples and 7-of-8 free throws. He also had 4 rebounds and 3 assists. This is the fifth MVP of the Round honor of Shengelia’s career, and his first with CSKA, which also had a player with the second-best PIR of Round 2, with Johannes Voigtmann’s 27. Voigtmann had an all-around game with 17 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 steals. Elsewhere, Cory Higgins of FC Barcelona had a PIR of 25 in his team’s road win at FC Bayern Munich, scoring 16 points along with 5 assists and 2 steals. Rounding out the list of this week’s top performers are Jan Vesely of Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul and Walter Tavares of Real Madrid. Both players found themselves on the losing end of road games in Greece with an index rating 24. Vesely collected 18 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists in a loss against Panathinaikos OPAP Athens, while Tavares had 15 points and 6 rebounds in defeat at Olympiacos Piraeus.
Individual leaders: Vasilije Micic, Efes, 32 points
Reigning EuroLeague MVP Vasilije Micic was this round’s top scorer with 32 points. Scottie Wilbekin of Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv is the league-leading scorer after Round 2 with 23.0 per game. Luka Mitrovic of Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade led all players with 11 rebounds in Round 2. Tavares and Luke Sikma of ALBA Berlin are the EuroLeague’s early rebounding leaders with 9.0 per game. Voigtmann and Efes guard Shane Larkin each had 7 assists to top all players this week, and Larkin has a league-high average of 6.5 assists. Five players had 4 steals this round: Nick Calathes of FC Barcelona, Darrun Hilliard of FC Bayern Munich, James Anderson of Efes, Rokas Giedraitis of Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz and Zvezda’s Stefan Lazarevic. Fenerbahce’s Pieria Henry and ALBA’s Oscar Da Silva lead are the leaders in this category with 3.0 steals per game. Tavares and Josh Nebo of Zalgiris Kaunas each had a round-high 3 blocks, with Tavares averaging a league-best 2.5 blocks per game.”
Also, the Top 10 Plays of Round 2 with Rudy Demahis halftime buzzer-beater screamer for AS Monaco climbing to first place.
Photo Credit: EuroLeague