Photo: EuroLeague Basketball

The first day of EuroLeague Round 3 had it all, including a career-high performance of Toko Shengelia in CSKA’s win over fellow Russian club Zenit.

At the same time, ASVEL continued its dreamy start in the competition, becoming the first team, alongside Olimpia Milano, to achieve three wins.

Toko Shengelia continues his MVP form

Tornike Shengelia had another magical night in EuroLeague Round 3, coming off the Round 2 MVP award. Shengelia had an amazing performance in CSKA’s victory over Zenit St. Petersburg to lead his team to another win.

CSKA Moscow big man set a career-high in scoring and tied his career-best in performance index rating. He finished the contest with 33 points on 10 of 16 two-pointers, 2 of 4 threes and 7 of 11 free throws.

Shengelia added 8 rebounds, two assists, two steals and drew seven fouls for a PIR of 37. His previous career-high in points was 31 points in a game between Baskonia and Fenerbahce.

“First of all, I’m happy that we won the game. If we don’t win, the numbers don’t mean anything. So, I’m happy for my team. I’m really proud of my teammates. I think that we played great defensively and offensively.

We moved the ball offensively and defensively we had a couple of minutes of struggle, but we came back. We never gave up, and I’m glad, thank God, we won the game,” the CSKA Moscow superstar said after the game.

ASVEL’s Kostas Antetokounmpo makes winning play in comeback victory over the reigning champions

LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne stayed unbeaten in the competition after their win over reigning champions Anadolu Efes. The French club came back from a 19-point deficit to win the contest.

Kostas Antetokounmpo, the brother of the Milwaukee Bucks supestar Giannis Antetokounmpo, broke the tie with a put-back as 12 seconds remained for the end of the game.

Antetokounmpo finished with 10 points, four rebounds and one steal. Ellie Ekobo was once again the most important factor for ASVEL as he dished 10 assists, which is tied for the second highest for the club since 2002.

“It was character. It just shows how much character me and the guys have,” Chris Jones, who had a team-high 16 points for the winning side, said.

“As I said earlier, we’re trying to build something. Efes are defending champs, so just going in and playing the best basketball we can play got us the result we wanted, and it just shows a lot about us.” 

Milan’s Dinos Mitoglou making the transition to stretch forward

Dinos Mitoglou is known for his amazing ability to rebound the ball and finish close to the basket; however, he seems to make the transition to a versatile stretch big.

In Olimpia Milan’s third consecutive win in the EuroLeague, the Greek forward hit a career-high four three-pointers to lead his team in scoring with 16 points.

Mitoglou playing alongside Kyle Hines seems to be helping him to slightly adjust his role, after moving to the Italian club this past summer.

“We started the game very strong. We were very ready mentally and physically, very prepared. We maintained a very great first half. We need to continue like this.

In the second half, we relaxed a little bit, but we maintained the difference and are happy about it. We won; we have a great good rhythm and need to maintain this. I am very happy for it,” Mitoglou said after his amazing performance.

Maodo Lo explodes for 21 second-half points in ALBA’s victory

ALBA Berlin guard Maodo Lo was held scoreless in the first half against Fenerbahce. The situation changed in the second half, where the German guard exploded for 21 points and led his team to the win.

Lo was coming off a career-high 22-point performance in EuroLeague’s Round 2, but his effort wasn’t enough for ALBA, who saw ASVEL galloping to the win.

Newly signed Oscar Da Silva continued his incredible performances by putting a career-high 22 points along with five rebounds in just his second appearance in the EuroLeague.

“We just came out with a little more aggressiveness and more confidence on offense [to start the second half]. We were tight. We just tried to play a little more loose, have confidence in the things we do and be aggressive.

And it worked. We were able to do a good job in the beginning of the second half. That gave us confidence and momentum and we took that and just kept on going,” Lo said on his amazing second half performance.