MUNICH (FIBA Europe Cup) - It was a fine week for Balkan big men in the Quarter-Finals, with Nizhny Novgorod center Stevan Jelovac moving atop the double-double leaderboard in the FIBA Europe Cup and Mornar Bar man-in-the middle Radoje Vujosevic posting one of the best rebounding performances this season.

Like every week, we take a deep dive into the most interesting events of the game day, through the lens of numbers and look to get you up to speed with what took place.

0

After drawing the first leg of the Round of 16 tie against Tsmoki-Minsk, Sidigas Scandone Avellino have done it again in the Quarter-Finals. The Italians are all level with Juventus Utena at 77-all after the first game in Lithuania, following a late game-tying basket by Simas Buterlevicius. In the previous round, Avellino were able to break the deadlock with a road win in Minsk, but now they will have the luxury of playing the second game at home.

7-of-22

Two of the most prolific scorers in the FIBA Europe Cup, DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell and Derek Needham, had an off-week in terms of shooting the ball. Both players struggled with their accuracy, going a worse-than-desirable 7-of-22 form the field. Despite this, both Bakken Bears and Mornar Bar celebrated wins on the respective first legs of their Quarter-Final ties.

Akoon-Purcell collected 15 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists in a 76-62 victory over ESSM Le Portel, while Needham went for 20 points in a 73-67 triumph over Donar Groningen.

9

No player has dished out more assists in a Play-Off game this year than MarQuez Haynes, who registered 9 of them against Nizhny Novgorod this week. The Umana Reyer Venezia playmaker helped the Italians get an 86-76 win over their Russian opponents and fell just one dime short of a double-double after scoring 10 points.

In the Round of 16, Marquis Wright of Egis Kormend, Ivan Strebkov of Nizhny Novgorod and Brandyn Curry of Donar Groningen also reached the 9-assist mark.

10+10

Nizhny Novgorod big man Stevan Jelovac posted his fourth double-double of the season by going for 28 points and 12 rebounds in a loss to Umana Reyer Venezia to move atop the double-double leaderboard in the FIBA Europe Cup.

Also with four double-doubles each, Istanbul BBSK center Ivan Buva, Wesley Saunders of Kataja Basket and Keravnos big man Terell Parks share the honors, with six more players right behind them with three each.

Altogether, 50 players have registered double-doubles in the FIBA Europe Cup this season. Among active ones, Jeffrey Crockett and Tony Bishop of Bakken Bears are closest to the leader pack, having registered three double-doubles each.

10

It's number 10…and Stevan Jelovac is once again in the spotlight. He went 10-of-11 from the free-throw line in Venice and registered his second game in the FIBA Europe Cup this season with double-digit makes from the charity stripe. The only other player to do so is Nemanja Vranjes of Mornar Bar, who also holds the season-high mark with 14 made free-throws back in the Second Round.

Talking about swishing it from the free-throw line, Juventus Utena guard Simas Buterlevicius was just shy of reaching double figures against Sidigas Scandone Avellino, going 9-of-9.

14

After climbing out of a 17-point hole against Dinamo Sassari in the Round of 16, ESSM Le Portel will have to overturn a double-digit deficit once against at Le Chaudron if they want to continue their European campaign. Having trailed by as many as 22 points in the fourth quarter against Bakken Bears, the Eric Girard side managed to close the deficit to 76-62 by the end of the game. However, that still leaves them with a 14-point deficit before the second leg.

16

Radoje Vujosevic stepped up in a big way for Mornar Bar with starting center Uros Lukovic out with an injury. The 28-year-old Montenegrin big man notched up 16 rebounds against Donar Groningen at the Topolica Sports Hall and set the third-best rebounding mark in the FIBA Europe Cup this season. He grabbed 9 rebounds on the offensive side of the court and 7 more on the defensive end.

19:59

Umana Reyer Venezia power forward Hrvoje Peric wasted no time in snatching up the Top Performer honors this week, getting the job done in less than 20 minutes. The Croatia international went 9-of-12 from the field for 26 points, while adding 4 rebounds, an assist and a block for an overall efficiency of 27. This is the first time that a player has been named the Top Performer of the week having played under 20 minutes.

FIBA