Photo: EuroLeague Basketball

William Howard played a huge role in LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne win over AS Monaco Basket in the first EuroLeague clash between two French League teams this century.

Howard led ASVEL to a thrilling 84-85 victory, burying the game-winning shot from almost midcourt and earning the MVP honors for Round 12.

Howard finished the game with career highs of 23 points, 10 rebounds, three steals and a performance index rating of 33. He was also near-perfect, shooting 3 of 5 two-pointers, 5 of 5 triples and 2 of 4 free throws.

Howard surpassed Panathinaikos’ center Georgios Papagiannis (31 index rating) and Darrun Hilliard, who had an index rating of 30 in Bayern’s loss to CSKA Moscow Thursday. This was the first time in his career to win the MVP award for Howard.

Thus, in his second season with the club in the EuroLeague, he’s averaging 7.7 points on 46 percent shooting from the field and almost 47 percent from deep through 11 games.