Elijah Bryant is making a habit of this. A week after taking Round 2 honors, the Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv guard delivered another huge performance to lead his team to a 102-98 home win over Real Madrid and claim MVP of the Round accolade for Round 3.
Bryant scored 22 points on 6-of-9 two-point shooting, 1-of-6 from beyond the arc and 7-of-9 from the free-throw line. He also grabbed a career-high 13 rebounds, handed out 7 assists, made a steal and drew 9 fouls for a PIR of 40, the highest by any player on a winning team in this round.
It is the fifth MVP of the Round award of Bryant’s career – one with Anadolu Efes Istanbul and four with Hapoel. He is also the first player to win the award in consecutive rounds since Sasha Vezenkov in Rounds 2 and 3 of the 2024-25 regular season, when Vezenkov shared the first of those honors with Neal Sako of LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne. The last player to win back-to-back awards outright was Walter Tavares of Real Madrid, in Games 3 and 4 of the 2023 EuroLeague Playoffs against Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade.
Theo Maledon matched Bryant’s PIR of 40, but in a losing effort for Real Madrid. Maledon finished with 26 points on 8-of-11 two-pointers, 1-of-1 from three-point range and a perfect 7-of-7 from the line, adding 5 rebounds, 7 assists, a block and 6 fouls drawn.
Virtus Bologna teammates Marcus Carr and Aliou Diarra each posted a PIR of 30 in a 96-94 home win over Olympiacos Piraeus. Carr scored 22 points on 2-of-3 two-pointers, 5-of-8 three-pointers and 3-of-4 free throws, dished out 10 assists and buried the game-winning shot at the buzzer. He also had 3 rebounds and 3 fouls drawn. Diarra amassed 18 points on 8-of-11 two-point shooting and 2-of-4 free throws, plus 14 rebounds, a steal, a block and 4 fouls drawn.
Mbaye Ndiaye rounded out the top performers with a PIR of 29 for Olympiacos, finishing with 23 points, 7 rebounds, a steal, a block and 2 fouls drawn as the Reds fell in Bologna.
Individual highs: Aliou Diarra, Virtus, 14 rebounds
Maledon and Patty Mills of ASVEL shared the round’s scoring lead with 26 points apiece. Kevin Punter of FC Barcelona, Vezenkov and Duane Washington of FC Bayern Munich are tied atop the season scoring charts at 20.0 points per game.
Diarra led all rebounders with 14 boards against Olympiacos. Azuolas Tubelis of Zalgiris Kaunas leads the season standings at 8.7 rebounds per game.
Devon Hall of Armani Olimpia Milan dished out a round-high 12 assists in an 87-75 road loss to Kosner Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz. Carr is the league leader at 7.7 assists per game.
Ognjen Dobric of Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade and Alessandro Pajola of Partizan shared the steals lead with 4 each. Luca Vildoza of Partizan leads the season standings at 4.3 steals per game.
Jonas Valanciunas of Zalgiris blocked a round-high 3 shots in an 82-78 road loss to Paris Basketball. He also leads the league at 2.3 blocks per game.
Six players recorded double-doubles in Round 3: Bryant (22 points, 13 rebounds), Carr (22 points, 10 assists), Diarra (18 points, 14 rebounds), Hall (12 points, 12 assists), Tavares (14 points, 13 rebounds) and Efes’s Dario Saric (13 points, 10 rebounds).
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