Latvia's Roberts Blums awarded MVP trophy

MATOSINHOS (Portugal) - Roberts Blums was named MVP of the FIBA U18 European Championship 2023, Division B, as the Latvian guard led his team to victory in the Final over Belgium.

Blums played a major role in Latvia hoisting the Division B tournament trophy for the first time ever, as he contributed with 23 points, 9 rebounds and 2 assists in the team's 75-69 win over Belgium in the Final.

For the tournament, Blums averaged 20.0 points, 5.3 rebounds, 1.6 steals and 1.3 assists per game in seven games. He led Latvia in points and was second on the team in rebounds and steals.

Blums was joined in the All-Star Five by Belgium's Noah Meeusen, David Mirkovic of Montenegro, Ruben Prey of Portugal and Bulgaria's Aleksandar Gavalyugov.

Meeusen recorded 11 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists in the Final and for the tournament, he averaged 17.9 points, 5.0 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 2.0 steals per game for the runners-up.

Mirkovic helped Montenegro to a third-place finish after dropping 31 points against Austria. He averaged 15.8 points, 9.0 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.1 steals per game.

Prey averaged 19.1 points, a tournament-high 14.0 rebounds per game, 3.0 assists, 2.6 steals and 1.4 blocks per game, while shooting 53.8 percent overall from the field.

Finally, Gavalyugov led the tournament in scoring with 21.9 points per game, to go with 6.6 assists, 5.0 rebounds and 2.7 threes per game.

FIBA