EuroView: Ben Madgen shined the brightest
It was a pretty quite week for Aussies in Europe, although there was one guy who shined a lot and made all his team's fans proud.
Ben Madgen once again showed his ability to shoot and proved to his coach that he could be a huge factor for Lietuvos rytas Vilnius in their Lithuanian basketball league playoff run. The 33-year-old guard posted a team-high 18 points on 7-10 shooting in 24 minutes of action. The veteran also added 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals, finished the game with 21 efficiency points and helped Lietuvos rytas to a 97-77 win against Nevezis Kedainiai at home.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aSSu77N-Pk
Another Aussie who has earned a lot of trust from his coach was Brock Motum. The stretch forward played 32 minutes, adding 8 points on 3-8 shooting. Anadolu Efes Istanbul on the night overall did not shoot well, with Krunoslav Simon making just 2-8 from the field, Sonny Weems 6-13 and Erick McCollum a paltry 4-12. As a result of their poor shooting, it resulted in a loss against 2018 EuroCup winners Darussafaka Istanbul 67-79. This means that Anadolu almost have no chance to finish the Turkish basketball league regular season in second place.
In Israel, Maccabi Tel Aviv is still experiencing a tough time of it. While Nevan Spahija's squad beat Hapoel Tel Aviv at home 90-82 on Thursday, the team suffered another loss 69-73 against Hapoel Fattal Eilat on Monday. Jonah Bolden was effective in both games, registering a near double-double with 9 points and 9 rebounds last week, while he scored 8 points and grabbed 5 rebounds in the latter game.
Fans had a chance to see two Aussies going head-to-head in Serbia when KK FMP visited KK Vrsac to steal the road win 102-89. Mirko Djeric played almost without a break (36 minutes) and scored 11 points, but his effort wasn’t enough for Vrsac. Isaac Humphries compiled 8 points on a perfect 4-4 shooting with 2 rebounds for the winning squad.
Both of the Aussies in Serbia played two more game from that day. Djeric had 9 and 4 points respectively as Vrsac split those two games with 1 win and 1 loss. Humphries had 4 points in an easy win against KK Metalac, but didn’t play when his team beat KK Partizan.
A real quiet week was for Mitch Creek. NBL runner-up played just 9 minutes and had 0 points with -4 efficiency in Goettingen's last regular season game. Meanwhile Mitchell McCarron wasn't even included into the roster for Petrol Olimpija's in Slovenia, while Ryan Broefkhoff continued to play the waiting game as he nears his return from injury.
Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar has been looking good in the VTB United League without its leader. 'Loko', which is fighting for the 3rd spot, handed a 49 point loss to Enisey 106-57. But guess who was shining the most in this game? Broekhoff's replacement Jonas Maciulis. The Lithuanian had team-high 22 points as well as 34 efficiency points with 9 rebounds and 5 assists.