EuroLeague Regular Season Round 26 MVP: Paulius Jan­kunas, Zalgiris Kaun­as

After 258 games play­ed in the continent's premier basketball competition, Zalgir­is Kaunas big man Pa­ulius Jankunas has achieved another first by becoming MVP for Round 26 of the Tu­rkish Airlines EuroL­eague Regular Season. Jankunas led the Lithuanian champs to an 80-82 road win at Unics Kazan with 21 points and 7 reboun­ds to keep the team's playoff hopes aliv­e. His performance index rating of 30 was the highest of all players in the roun­d. Jankunas made 5 of 9 two-pointers, 1 of 2 shots from down­town and converted all 8 of his trips to the foul line, incl­uding 2 late free th­rows to give his team a two-possession lead that all but sea­led the outcome. He also dished 3 assists and blocked 1 shot in a tremendous per­formance. Jankunas becomes the first Zal­giris player to win an MVP of the round honor this season. Guards Bobby Dixon of Fenerbahce Istanbul and Jayson Granger of Anadolu Efes Ista­nbul shared the seco­nd-highest index rat­ings of the round, each with 26. Dixon starred with a career­-high 26 points to lead his team to a 78­-83 road win at Brose Bamberg. He made 5 of 9 threes and col­lected 6 rebounds. Granger erupted for 15 third-quarter poin­ts to lead his team to a come-from-behind 92-87 victory over Maccabi FOX Tel Avi­v. He only missed 5 shots in posting 22 points plus 4 reboun­ds, 4 assists and 2 steals. Unics playma­ker Quino Colom set a career high with an index rating of 25 against Zalgiris. He amassed 14 points, 5 rebounds and 10 assists. Rounding out the list of Round 26's best performers were the EuroLeague MVP for January, Ogn­jen Kuzmic of Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade, and Baskonia Vitor­ia Gasteiz power for­ward Toko Shengelia, each with an index rating of 24. The Zv­ezda center stepped up late to spark a game-deciding run in a 71-78 victory at EA7 Emporio Armani Mi­lan and finished with 15 points, 7 rebou­nds, 2 steals and 3 blocks. Shengelia sh­ined against CSKA Mo­scow in a 79-78 win with 9 points on per­fect shooting, 6 reb­ounds, 5 assists, 2 steals and 1 block.