Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Week 24 MVP: Sasha Vezenkov, Olympiacos Piraeus

Sasha Vezenkov set four career highs on Thursday night while leading Olympiacos Piraeus to an 80-84 road win against ALBA Berlin, keeping the Reds in the playoff hunt while earning the first weekly MVP honor of his six-year Turkish Airlines EuroLeague career. Vezenkov’s personal bests came in points (31), three-pointers made (6 of 7), defensive rebounds (8) and performance index rating (41), which shattered his previous high of 26 and came just 1 shy of Olympiacos single-game PIR record. The Olympiacos forward also had 2 steals, 1 block and 5 fouls drawn while making 4 of 9 two-point shots and all 5 of his free throws on Thursday. And with his 2 offensive rebounds, Vezenkov achieved the EuroLeague’s first 30-point, 10-rebound double-double this season.

This week’s second-best PIR, 32, belonged to Jan Vesely of Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul, who had 21 points on 9-for-10 two-point shooting along with 10 rebounds and 5 assists in a 23-point win over Zalgiris Kaunas. CSKA Moscow’s 89-96 road win over Real Madrid on Thursday produced the next two best performances. Real center Walter Tavares collected 12 points, 13 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 blocks for a PIR 31, while CSKA forward Will Clyburn had 23 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals for a PIR 30. Also with a PIR 30 this week is Jordan Loyd of Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade who had 27 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds in a road win over Panathinaikos OPAP Athens.

Individual highs: Howard Sant-Roos, Panathinaikos OPAP Athens, 7 steals

Vezenkov led all scorers this week with 31 points. CSKA’s Mike James leads the league in scoring with 19.6 per game. Tavares topped all players with 13 rebounds this week. CSKA center Nikola Milutinov remains league’s rebounding leader with 8.6 on average. Nick Calathes of FC Barcelona led all players with 11 assists. Alexey Shved of Khimki Moscow Region leads the EuroLeague in assists this season with 8.1 per game. Panathinaikos guard Howard Sant-Roos had 7 steals, a career and EuroLeague season high which also matched the second-best total of the last decade. TD Systems Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz point guard Pierria Henry remains the season-long steals leader with 1.8 per game. Two players had 3 blocks this week: Tibor Pleiss of Anadolu Efes Istanbul in a rescheduled Round 23 win over Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv, and Tavares in Real’s Round 30 loss to CSKA. Panathinaikos big man Georgios Papagiannis is the top shot-blocker this season with 1.8 per game. ALBA’s Luke Sikma had 11 points and 10 rebounds, posting a double-double along with those of Vezenkov, Tavares and Vesely.