Top 16, Week 7 bwin MVP: Sasha Kaun!

On CSKA Moscow’s star-studded team, it was an unheralded blue-collar ace in the paint that made the big impact in the biggest victory of any team in Top 16 Game 7. And for his contributions as the Russian champs bested Panathinaikos 86-69 on Thursday, center Sasha Kaun earned bwin MVP of the week honors for the first time in his career.

Kaun was an unstoppable force for CSKA as he took advantage of the extra minutes available due to forward Viktor Khryapa’s injury to stamp his impact on the result. Kaun scored 13 points on perfect shooting, grabbed 8 rebounds and blocked 5 shots en route to a performance index rating of 30, which was the highest among any player on a winning team in Top 16 Game 7. Kaun also recorded 2 assists and 2 steals into putting together an outing that his coach, Ettore Messina, compared to Hall of Famer Bill Russell.

Anton Gavel of Brose Baskets Bamberg matched Kaun with an index of 30, but his team ultimately fell 87-88 after overtime to Zalgiris Kaunas. Gavel scored a career-high 25 points – including free throws to put his team up 2 with 16 seconds left in the extra session – on 14-of-16 free throw shooting, grabbed 5 rebounds and dished 3 assists. Fenerbahce Ulker swingman Bojan Bogdanovic was close to a bwin MVP title for the second time in three weeks, but came up just short with a 29 index. Bogdanovic paced Fener to a 78-72 victory with 25 points, 3 assists and 8 fouls drawn.