By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Cory Higgins was named Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season Round 7 MVP. FC Barcelona’s swingman posted a EuroLeague personal-best 27 points in the away win over Zalgiris Kaunas. His 33 PIR was the highest among all players of the winning teams in Round 7 action.
Per EuroLeague: “With his team trying to get back to winning ways on a tough road test, Cory Higgins led FC Barcelona to an 86-93 win in a packed Zalgirio Arena, and in the process earned the MVP of the Round honor. Higgins scored 24 of his career-high 27 points in the second half, and missed only 1 shot the entire night. He made 4 of 5 two-pointers and shot a perfect 5-for-5 triples, also a career-best, while making all 4 of his free throw attempts. He also had 1 assist and 1 steal to accumulate a performance index rating of 33, the highest among players on winning teams in Round 7, earning the third MVP of the Round honor in his career. The highest PIR in Round 7 belongs to Jordan Loyd of Valencia Basket. In a road loss against Panathinaikos OPAP Athens, Loyd had 27 points, 8 assists, 5 rebounds, 2 steals and 1 block for an index rating of 41, a club record. In third place is Shane Larkin of Anadolu Efes Istanbul who had a PIR of 31 with 24 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists in a big road win at Olympiacos Piraeus. Nikola Mirotic of Barcelona is next with a PIR 29, after scoring 24 points, while making a perfect 12 of 12 free throws, along with 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals. Efes guard Vasilije Micic rounds out the list of top performers in this round, with a career-high 27 points, 5 assists, 2 assists and 2 steals for an index rating of 27.
Individual highs: Tonye Jekiri of LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne, 14 rebounds
Micic, Higgins and Loyd were the top scorers in Round 7 with 27 points apiece. There is also a tie in the overall scoring standings, with Nando De Colo of Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul and Alexey Shved of Khimki Moscow Region both averaging 20.9 points. Tonye Jekiri of LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne led all rebounders this week by pulling down 14 against CSKA Moscow. He ranks second in the rebounds table (10.4 rpg.), right behind Nikola Milutinov of Olympiacos (11.1 rpg.). Nick Calathes of Panathinaikos had 9 assists to lead the weekly standings and is also first overall at 9.1 per night. One more assist on Friday would have given Calathes, who also had 13 points and 12 rebounds, the second triple-double in his EuroLeague career and the fourth-ever in the competition. Stefan Jovic of Khimki, Luca Vildoza of KIROLBET Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz and Tarik Black of Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv each collected 4 steals in this round. Micic leads the overall steals table at 2.1 per night. Walter Tavares of Real Madrid had 5 blocks against Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade – a new career-high. He also leads the blocks standings at 1.7 per night. Only two players, Calathes and Milutinov, registered double-doubles in Round 7.”