Sportingbet Week 9 MVP: Bo McCalebb, Montepaschi Siena

Bo McCalebb added to his growing legacy this week with a career-best performance in his team’s biggest game of the season to lead Montepaschi Siena to a major victory over a rival, clinching first place in Group C and earning Sportingbet Week 9 MVP honors in the process. With the spotlight on in the Game of the Week, McCalebb produced 22 points on superb shooting – 7 for 10 from the field and 8 for 8 from the line – in addition to 7 assists and 4 steals for a performance index rating of 34, the best of his Euroleague career. Moreover, the 25-year-old All-Euroleague point guard accomplished the feat against one of the league’s tougher defenses, Fenerbahce Ulker – a defense that had allowed opponent more than 80 points just once all season – leading Montepaschi to a whopping 94-65 victory. Nihad Djedovic, one of European basketball’s most-celebrated prospects in recent years, held his coming out party with the second-best individual performance of Week 9. Djedovic recorded career highs of 23 points, 6 assists and a performance index rating of 32 to lead Lottomatica Roma to an 81-75 win over Unicaja. Fran Vazquez scored a career-best 27 points on 10-of-13 shooting and pulled down 9 rebounds for a 31 index, but his team, Regal FC Barcelona, came up short 88-87 at Lirtuvos Rytas. D’Or Fischer dominated inside with 15 points, 14 rebounds and 3 blocks for Real Madrid, which lost 82-75 at Brose Baskets. Rounding out the list of Week 9’s best individual showings are Fernando San Emeterio of Caja Laboral and Saso Ozbolt of Union Olimpija, both with index ratings of 29. San Emeterio recorded 21 points in 41 minutes as Laboral topped Zalgiris 89-95 in overtime. Ozbolt scored 22, grabbed 7 rebounds, dished 4 assists and swiped 3 steals as Olimpija defeated CSKA 81-72.

Individual performances: Avdalovic and Huertas, 13 assists

Week 9’s No. 1 scorer also tied a Euroleague record in the process. Caja Laboral forward Mirza Teletovc nailed 9 three-pointers en route to 32 points, his career-high and the most scored by a single player in the Euroleague this season. Teletovic improved his average to 16.8 points per game and is now ranked third in the Euroleague, trailing the scoring co-leaders by 1 point through 9 games. That distinction belongs to Cibona swingman Bojan Bogdanovic and BC Khimki guard Keith Langford with 16.9 points per game. Fischer’s 14 rebounds were the most by any player in the competition this week. With 6.6 rebounds per game, Fischer is tied for sixth in the league. Zalgiris big man Paulius Jankunas remains the top rebounder with 7.4 per game. Just hours apart from one another, Vule Avdalovic of Cholet Basket and Marcelinho Huertas of Caja Laboral each came within 1 assist of tying the Euroleague record when they dished 13 in their team’s respective wins. For Huertas it was enough to take the league lead with 5.9 assists per game. Avdalovic is now ranked 13th with 3.6 per game. Vlado Ilievski of Union Olimpija came up with 5 steals – the most in the Euroleague this week – and climbed to fourth place for the season with 2.1 steals per game. Chuck Eidson of Maccabi Electra leads the league with an average of 3 steals per game. Fischer also blocked more shots than any player for the second wee in a row, 3, raising his average to 2 per game, which is second only to Zalgiris center Mirza Begic’s 2.3 per game. Amid all the spectacular performances, Fischer was one of four players to record double-doubles in Week 9. He was joined by Sarunas Jasikevicius (11 points, 10 assists) of Lietuvos Rytas, Ksistof Lavrinovic (10 points, 11 rebounds) of Montepaschi and Ali Traore (12 points, 10 rebounds) of Lottomatica Roma.