Lawrence Hill named week 1 EuroChallenge MVP

Last 16 Week 1 EuroChallenge MVP

Hapoel Holon fell 83-66 at Paris Levallois in their opening game in the EuroChallenge Last 16, but no one could blame Lawrence Hill for a lack of effort.

The Israeli side travelled to Paris without their influential center Franklin Hassell, and Hill took it upon himself to make up for the absence of his frontcourt partner.

He didn’t quite deliver the duo’s average combined stat lines, but he came close.

Hill stayed on the court for the entire game and finished with a season-high 26 points on 12-of-16 shooting from the floor, brought down 14 boards, also a season-high, and blocked two shots.

This performance was enough for the American forward to gather an efficiency rating of 37 and earn Last 16 Week 1 MVP honours, despite his team’s loss.

His compatriot Andre Smith, also a power forward, is close behind on the table this week with a rating of 35.

Smith helped Krasnye Krylia overpower Norrköping Dolphins, 93-75, with a 28-point, 12-rebound double-double and to top it all up he did not commit a single turnover in his 31 minutes on the court.

Point guard Robert Dixon, who went six-for-seven from behind the three-point arc to collect 28 points and lead Pinar Karsiyaka in their comfortable 89-59 triumph over Gaz Metan Medias, is in third place this week, and the only other player to have reached a rating of 30.