EuroLeague Regular Season Round 25 MVP: Nando De Colo, CSKA Moscow

For the fifth time this season, the reigning EuroLeague MVP is also the MVP of the round.  Nando De Colo captured the honor as MVP of Round 25 of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season after leading CSKA Moscow to a playoff berth-clinching 85-69 victory over Galatasaray Odeabank Istanbul Thursday. De Colo recorded 22 points and 4 steals for a performance index rating of 26, which was the highest of any player on a winning team. He was perfect from the free throw line in 8 trips and collected 3 rebounds, 2 assists and 8 fouls drawn. The highest index rating for the round came from Brad Wanamaker of Darussafaka Dogus Istanbul, which came up short 81-73 at Olympiacos Piraeus. Wanamaker tallied 23 points and 6 assists in posting a 29 index rating. Fenerbahce Istanbul guard Bogdan Bogdnovic amassed an index rating of 26 in his team’s 74-79 loss at the hands of Baskonia Vitoria Gasteiz. Bogdanovic paced the attack with 26 points and 8 assists. Rounding out the top performers of Round 25 were Gustavo Ayon of Real Madrid and Nicolo Melli of Brose Bamberg, each with index ratings of 25. Ayon did not miss a shot in posting 12 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists in his team’s 98-68 rout of Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade. Melli only missed twice from the floor in leading his team to a 68-87 road win at Anadolu Efes Istanbul with 16 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 1 block.

Individual leaders: Bogdan Bogdanovic of Fenerbahce Istanbul, 26 points

Bogdanovic came within 1 of his career-high in scoring with 26 points, which was the most of any player in Round 25. Unics Kazan star Keith Langford sat out his team’s loss in Barcelona due to an ankle injury, but he remains the league leader in scoring with 22.3 points per game. Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv big man Colton Iverson topped the weekly rebounding charts with 9. Melli leads the league with 7.6 rebounds per game. Real Madrid star Sergio Llull had the only double-double of the round, with 11 points and 10 assists, the latter of which marked the Round 25 high for assists. CSKA Moscow guard Milos Teodosic is ranked first among all EuroLeague players with 7.3 assists per game this season. De Colo and FC Barcelona Lassa center Ante Tomic tied atop the Round 25 standings with 4 steals apiece. Crvena Zvezda guard Charles Jenkins remains the season leader with 2.0 steals per game. Chris Singleton of Panathinaikos Superfoods Athens and Diamon Simpson of Maccabi, playing in his first EuroLeague game, each blocked 3 shots to lead all players in the round. All-EuroLeague center Ekpe Udoh of Fenerbahce continues atop the season-long standings with 2.29 blocks per game after missing Round 25 with a shoulder injury.