By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The reigning MVP of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, Nando De Colo of CSKA Moscow, did two things for the third time this season in his team’s 85-64 dismantling of Brose Bamberg; he missed a free throw and claimed the top individual honor for the round.
De Colo became the Round 18 MVP after scoring 26 points and racking up a performance index rating of 35, which was the highest of all players in action. De Colo made 8 of 9 two-point shots and 7 of 8 free throws. His missed free throw snapped a streak of 50 consecutive that he had made in the EuroLeague. He has now hit 63 for 66 attempts from the foul line (95.5%) for the season and remains the EuroLeague’s all-time most accurate free-throw shooter at 92.8%. De Colo added 4 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals in a masterful performance against Bamberg.
The second-highest index rating for the round came from Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens guard Mike James in a losing effort. James scored 25 points and added 2 assists and 2 steals for an index rating of 33 in the Greens’ 84-63 defeat to Fenerbahce Istanbul. In his first game for FC Barcelona Lassa, center Vitor Faverani came off the bench for a monster game in an 89-78 victory over Anadolu Efes Istanbul. He scored 18 points on 7-of-9 two-point shooting and added 8 rebounds for an index rating of 23. Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv scorer Andrew Goudelock matched Faverani for the third-highest index rating of the round in his team’s 67-71 home loss to Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade. Goudelock scored 19 points on 4-of-7 three-point shooting and grabbed 5 rebounds. Rounding out the list of Round 18’s top performers were Gustavo Ayon of Real Madrid, Krunoslav Simon of EA7 Emporio Armani Milan, Sinan Guler of Galatasaray Odeabank Istanbul and Art Parakhouski of Unics Kazan, each with a performance index rating of 22.
Individual leaders: Tyrese Rice of FC Barcelona Lassa, 9 assists
De Colo, who is also the reigning Alphonso Ford top Scorer Trophy winner, was the week’s top scorer with 26 points. His average of 19.9 points per game is second only to former Ford Trophy winner Keith Langford of Unics, who leads the league with 23.5 points per game. Zvezda center Ognjen Kuzmic and Maccabi forward Devin Smith were Round 18’s best rebounders with 9 boards each. Kuzmic is now third in the league with 7.9 rebounds per game; no one is averaging more than Brose Bamberg forward Nicolo Melli’s 8.2 on average. Tyrese Rice of Barcelona dished 9 assists Thursday to top the weekly charts. Rice climbed to ninth this season with 5.3 assist per game; CSKA playmaker Milos Teodosic leads all players with 7.6 assists per game. The high mark for steals in Round 13 was 3, accomplished by nine players: De Colo, Derrick Brown and Jayson Granger of Efes, Jan Vesely of Fenerbahce, Adrien Moerman of Darussafaka Dogus Istanbul, Petteri Koponen of Barcelona, Simone Fontecchio of Milan, Paul Stoll of Unics and Rudy Fernandez of Madrid. Zvezda guard Charles Jenkins’s 2.0 steals per game is the most in the league. CSKA forward Andrey Vorontsevich rejected 3 shots to stand alone atop the Round 18 leaders in that category. Ekpe Udoh of Fenerbahce owns the league’s best average with 2.1 blocks per game.