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7DAYS EuroCup Semifinals MVP: Kevarrius Hayes, Frutti Extra Bursaspor

A dominant night on the boards helped push his team to the championship game and Frutti Extra Bursaspor center Kevarrius Hayes to the MVP honor for the 7DAYS EuroCup Semifinals. Hayes posted a double-double of 11 points and 16 boards for as Bursaspor blew out host MoraBanc Andorra 68-85 to advance to the 7DAYS EuroCup Final on May 11. His 12 defensive rebounds were a new EuroCup record in for the semifinals or finals. His 16 total boards were the second-most in semifinals history. Hayes shot a perfect 5-for-5 on two-pointers and 1-for-1 at the foul line, adding a steal and a block for a performance index rating of 27, the highest on either winning team in the semis.

The best semifinals performance, albeit in a losing effort, came from the same game, as Andorra's Oriol Pauli posted a career-high 28 PIR in his 100th EuroCup game. Pauli scored 16 points, pulled 9 rebounds and dished 5 assists. Staying in the same game, the next-best PIR was 23 by Bursaspor guard Andrew Andrews, who led the winners with 20 points. Yet another Bursaspor player, Onuralp Bitim, followed with a PIR of 18, and the fifth-best PIR of the semis belonged to Xabi Lopez-Arostegui of Valencia Basket, which lost 73-83 to Virtus Segafredo Bologna.

Individual highs: Jakarr Sampson, Virtus, 3 blocks

Andrew Andrews of Frutti Extra Bursaspor led all semifinals scorers with 20 points. The season-long leader remains Errick McCollum of Lokomotiv Kuban with 24.2 points per game. Kevarrius Hayes of Bursaspor pulled down 16 rebounds, the second-most in semifinals history, in his team's road win over MoraBanc Andorra. The full-season rebounding king is Kerem Kanter of Slask Wroclaw with 8.8 boards on average. Martin Hermannsson of Valencia Basket and Derek Needham of Bursaspor both dished 7 assist this week. Another semifinalist, Milos Teodosic of Virtus Segafredo Bologna, is the overall leader at 8.2 per game. Marco Belinelli of Virtus and Xabi Lopez-Arostegui of Valencia both had 3 steals in the semis. Overall leader Andrew Albicy of Gran Canaria averaged 1.8 steals. Jakarr Sampson of Virtus swatted 3 shots in his team's semis victory over Valencia. Octavius Ellis of Turk Telekom Ankara won the blocks title with 1.5 per game.

Euroleague Basketball (EB) is a global leader in the sports and entertainment business, devoted to running the top European competitions of professional basketball clubs under a unique and innovative organizational model. Owned and administered by some of the most successful and historic clubs in the world, EB manages the continent’s two premier men’s basketball competitions, the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague and the 7DAYS EuroCup, as well as the sport’s premier under-18 showcase, the EB Adidas Next Generation Tournament.

The EB competitions bring the elite of European basketball to all five continents and to the entire sports community through the OTT platform EuroLeague TV. EB also organizes a series of community and educational activities, led by the One Team program, in alignment with the United Nations Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. On the academic side, the EB Sports Business MBA trains future professionals in sports management.