Darius Thompson starred for Cazoo Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz in a thrilling 114-111 overtime win against two-time defending Turkish Airlines EuroLeague champ Anadolu Efes Istanbul, which has seen him pick up his first-ever MVP of the Round honor. Thompson, a EuroLeague rookie, had a Baskonia season-high PIR of 36, the best in Round 21. His 16 assists were a club record and the league’s highest total in almost two years. Thompson also scored 19 points, making 3-of-6 two-pointers and 2-of-5 threes, in addition to pulling down 6 rebounds and recording a victory-sealing block. This is the third MVP award won by a Baskonia player this season.
The round’s second-best PIR of 33 was shared by three players, and it was a career high for each of them: Mathew Costello of Baskonia, Gabriel Deck of Real Madrid and Roman Sorkin of Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv. Costello scored a career-best 33 points, making 6-of-8 two-pointers and 5-of-8 three-pointers, and grabbed 5 rebounds in a win over Efes. Deck led Real in a 91-86 overtime clásico win against FC Barcelona, scoring a game-high 23 points. He made 6-of-7 two-point shots and 8-of-8 free throws on the night. Deck also had 7 rebounds, an assist and a steal. Sorkin posted 23 points on 9-for-11 two-point shooting and 9 rebounds in just over 20 minutes on the floor during Maccabi’s 95-89 loss against Olympiacos Piraeus. Rounding out the list of top performers in Round 21 are Nando De Colo of LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne and Maodo Lo of ALBA Berlin, both of whom had a PIR of 30. De Colo recorded 26 points, 5 assists and 3 rebounds in a win over his former team, Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul, while Lo scored 25 points and had 3 rebounds in a loss against Valencia Basket.
Individual highs: Rokas Giedraitis, Baskonia, 18 rebounds
Costello led all scorers in Round 21 with 33 points. Dwayne Bacon of Panathinaikos Athens is the EuroLeague’s top scorer with 19.9 points per game. Another Baskonia player, Rokas Giedraitis, had a career-high 18 rebounds in this round, which ties a EuroLeague season high. Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade center Mathias Lessort is the league leader in rebounding with 7.4 per game. This round’s MVP, Thompson, had the most assists in Round 21 with a season-high 16 assists. Kostas Sloukas of Olympiacos leads the EuroLeague in this category, averaging 6.7 assists per contest. Two players had 4 steals in the most recent set of fixtures: Nicolo Melli of EA7 Emporio Armani Milan and the reigning EuroLeague MVP, Nikola Mirotic of FC Barcelona. Olympiacos guard Walkup tops the steals’ charts with 2.1 per game. Barca center Sertac Sanli led all players this week with 5 blocked shots. Real center Walter Tavares is this season’s top shot blocker with 2.7 per game. The three players with double-doubles in Round 21 were Thompson, AS Monaco’s Mike James with 18 points and 10 assists, and Maccabi’s Bonzie Colson with 13 points and 11 rebounds.
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