Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar guard Errick McCollum was unstoppable on Wednesday, leading his team to a 101-94 win in a back-and-forth affair against Partizan NIS Belgrade and earning Round 8's MVP honor for his performance.
Round 8 MVP: Errick McCollum, Lokomotiv
Awards
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McCollum netted a career-high 33 points by making 4 of 8 two-pointers, a career-best 5 triples on 7 attempts, and 10 of 12 free throws. He also had 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal and 7 fouls drawn to amass a performance index rating of 37, the highest in Round 8. In the process, McCollum took over second place on the EuroCup's all-time rankings in both scoring, with 1,404 points, and PIR, with 1,532. Two players with PIRs of 31 each, Jaka Blazic of Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana and Justin Cobbs of Buducnost VOLI Podgorica, came behind McCollum among Round 8's best performers. Blazic led Cedevita to an 85-97 road upset of Valencia Basket with game-high 24 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds, 3 steals and 10 fouls drawn. Cobbs guided Buducnost's 82-86 win over Mincidelice JL Bourg-en-Bresse with a game-high 24 points, 6 assists, 2 rebounds and 7 drawn fouls. The next-best performance belonged to Maik Kotsar of Hamburg Towers, who had 15 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals for a PIR of 30 in his team's 90-99 road win at Dolomiti Energia Trento. Completing Round 8's list of best performers were Vladimir Brodziansky of Joventut Badalona and Jakub Karolak of Slask Wroclaw, with PIRs or 29 in the same game, which Joventut won on the road, 73-87.
Individual highs: Simon Birgander, Joventut Badalona, 14 rebounds
McCollum led all scorers in Round 8 with a career-high 33 points, tied for the most by any EuroCup player this season. McCollum also took over the season-long scoring lead with 22.8 points per game. Joventut's Simon Birgander pulled down 14 rebounds, more than any other player in the round. Jordan Caroline of Trento is now the exclusive rebounding leader with 8.3 on average. Virtus Segafredo Bologna guard Milos Teodosic's 13 assists this week equaled the high total in the EuroCup this season. Teodosic is also the new overall assists leader with 8.1 per contest. Four players had 4 steals each in Round 8: Hamburg's duo of Kotsar and Justus Hollatz, Johnathan Williams of Trento and Victor Sanders of Umana Reyer Venice. Three players now share a EuroCup-high average of 2.0 steals: Aleksa Avramovic of Partizan, Derek Needham of Frutti Extra Bursaspor and Kevin Hervey of Virtus. Vince Hunter of Boulogne Metropolitans 92 had 3 blocks, the most in Round 8. Octavius Ellis of Turk Telekom Ankara is the top shot-blocker this season with 2.3 blocks per game.