By Cesare Milanti / info@eurohoops.net
After Codi Miller-McIntyre’s all-around Round 8 MVP night, Chima Moneke is the second straight Baskonia player to get the same award after leading Baskonia to the 88-81 on-the-road victory against ASVEL. The 27-year-old had a double-double of 19 points – 3/4 2FG and 4/6 3FG – and 13 rebounds (joint career-high) with 6 assists, another career-best, for a 35 PIR.
Interviewed after the encounter, the EuroLeague Round 9 MVP showed his attitude. “The whole time I genuinely believed we would come back and win this game. That starts with Dusko [Ivanovic]; I’ll never forget it, the first speech he gave to us was about belief and having confidence. And that’s what we did. It’s a long game, they started it off really well, but we weathered the storm”, he also praised his head coach.
Spending 36:55 minutes on the court due to Baskonia’s short 9-man rotation, Chima Moneke said he was “tired, but very happy”. After these four consecutive EuroLeague wins, he talked about his team’s moment. “I think people are starting to see we have potential. A lot of people wrote us off after our bad start. The Barcelona win changed a lot of opinions about us, but we believe in our group”, the 27-year-old went on to say.
As said, Dusko Ivanovic’s team is struggling with some injuries. “We’ve got a lot of guys still not playing but the coach always says that whoever plays is enough. Obviously, we miss Tadas [Sedekerskis], Vanja [Marinkovic], Nikos [Rogkavopoulos], Khalifa [Diop]. But we believe in what we have”, Chima Moneke remembered his teammates after the away win over ASVEL.
Being massive since the start of the season for the representative from the Basque Country, the 27-year-old player has been averaging 18.0 points, 6.9 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 1.4 steals with 60.0% from two-point range and 56.0% from the arc. Next week, he will face his former team AS Monaco.
Full list of 2023-24 EuroLeague Round MVPs
- Round 1: Alec Peters, Olympiacos vs Panathinaikos (31 PIR)
- Round 2: Guerschon Yabusele, Real Madrid vs Anadolu Efes (39 PIR)
- Round 3: Tornike Shengelia, Virtus Bologna vs ALBA Berlin (32 PIR)
- Round 4: Nikola Milutinov, Olympiacos vs Partizan Belgrade (30 PIR)
- Round 5: Mathias Lessort, Panathinaikos vs Baskonia (31 PIR)
- Round 6: Tornike Shengelia, Virtus Bologna vs Anadolu Efes (30 PIR)
- Round 7: Facundo Campazzo, Real Madrid vs Virtus Bologna (39 PIR)
- Round 8: Codi Miller-McIntyre, Baskonia vs FC Barcelona (29 PIR)
- Round 9: Chima Moneke, Baskonia vs ASVEL (35 PIR)
PHOTO CREDIT: Turkish Airlines EuroLeague