Kasparas Jakucionis had double the reason to celebrate at the Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Belgrade as he took home the Most Valuable Player trophy after helping U18 FC Barcelona grab first place in the event.
Jakucionis is used to collecting ANGT hardware after the Lithuanian was named MVP of last season’s ANGT Zadar tournament. The 1.93-meter guard nearly registered the eighth triple-double in ANGT history in Barcelona’s 85-104 victory over U18 EA7 Emporio Armani Milan in the first place game with 24 points, 11 rebounds and 9 assists to go with 2 steals and 8 fouls drawn for a PIR of 37. For the tournament, he averaged 17.0 points including a perfect 27-of-27 on free throws, 7.5 rebounds, 6.2 assists, 2.2 steals and 6.0 fouls drawn for an average PIR of 29.2. Of all players at the ANGT Belgrade, Jakucionis ranked second in PIR and assists, third with 7.2 defensive rebounds, tied for fourth with 6.0 fouls drawn, seventh in steals and eighth in scoring.
Jakucionis was joined on the All-Tournament Team by Denis Badalau of Milan, U18 Partizan Belgrade guard Savo Drezgic, Abdramane Siby of U18 Mega MIS Belgrade and Aleksa Stanojevic from U18 Next Generation Team Belgrade.