Regular Season Round 4 MVP: Ekpe Udoh, Fenerbahce Istanbul

Fenerbahce Istanbul center Ekpe Udoh showed last season that he is a big-game player and he proved that again on Friday in the first Turkish Airlines EuroLeague derby between his team and Galatasaray Odeabank Istanbul. Udoh starred by tying his EuroLeague best with 21 points and setting a career-high with 13 rebounds to lead Fenerbahce to an 87-103 road win and claim the honor of MVP for Round 4. Udoh’s performance index rating of 31 was the highest of any player on a winning team for Round 4. Udoh made 8 of 12 two-point shots, collected 6 offensive rebounds and added 2 assists and 1 steal in an impressive effort. The highest index rating not only of Round 4, but of the season so far came from Keith Langford of Unics Kazan, who recorded a 40 in his team’s 98-80 loss at CSKA Moscow. Langford scored a career-high 36 points on 5-of-10 three-point shooting and drew 13 fouls. Udoh’s teammate Kostas Sloukas was next on the list of Round 4 stars with 24 points and 7 assists for a performance index rating of 27. Sloukas was 4 for 4 from downtown as he set personal bests in both scoring and index rating. Ognjen Kuzmic of Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade also posted an index of 27 in his team’s 70-59 loss at Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens. Kuzmic totaled 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting and 15 rebounds for his first career double-double and a new career high in index rating. Completing the top performances of the round was Anthony Randolph of Real Madrid, who came up big in Los Blancos’ 90-101 road win at EA7 Emporio Armani Milan. Randolph dominated inside to the tune of 20 points and 14 rebounds for an index rating of 26.

Individual leaders: Keith Langford of Unics Kazan, 36 points

By scoring 36 points, Langford netted the highest single game tally in the EuroLeague since the 2014-15 season, and the fourth-highest this decade. His average of 24 points per game leads the league this season. Kuzmic was the EuroLeague’s top rebounder in Round 4 with 15 boards. Kuzmic and Udoh now share the league lead with averages of 9 rebounds per game. Olympiacos Piraeus’s star guard Vassilis Spanoulis’s career-high 15 assists tied for the third-most ever in a EuroLeague game and were naturally the most of any player in Round 4. Those assists also moved him past Theodoros Papaloukas into second place all-time with 984 career assists. CSKA Moscow maestro Milos Teodosic is averaging 9.5 assists per game to lead all passers this season. Former EuroLeague Best Defender Victor Khryapa of CSKA Moscow was the Round 4 leader with 4 steals. The full season leadership in steals is shared by Charles Jenkins of Crvena Zvezda and Tyrese Rice of FC Barcelona Lassa, who are each averaging 2.3 steals per game. Anadolu Efes Istanbul big man Tyler Honeycutt rejected 3 shots in his team’s Thursday victory over Darussafaka Dogus Istanbul. Those blocks were the most of the round and place Honeycutt third for the season with 1.5 blocks per game. The top spot is shared by Unics Kazan’s Art Parakhouski and Galatasaray’s Alex Tyus with 1.8 blocks per game. Round 4 saw six players notch double-doubles. Three were big guys – Kuzmic, Randolph and Udoh, while the other three were point guards – Shane Larkin (14 points, 11 assists) of Baskonia Vitoria Gasteiz, Spanoulis (15 points, 15 assists) and Teodosic (16 points, 10 assists).