Sweden's Trygger, Indrusaitis of Lithuania named MVPs of BWB Europe camp

WROCLAW (Poland) - Tilda Trygger of Sweden and Lithuania's Nojus Indrusaitis were named Most Valuable Players of the 20th edition of the Basketball Without Borders Europe camp in Wroclaw.

The two northern Europeans took home the top individual awards after four days of on and off court skills training at the WKK Sport Center in Poland. It was the first time that Poland hosted FIBA and NBA's global basketball development outreach program.

The 2023 edition of the BWB Europe camp brought together 40 girls and 40 boys from 31 countries. The campers were coached by San Antonio Spurs forward Jeremy Sochan, two-time WNBA champion Ruth Riley, 2011 NBA champion and NBA elite basketball academics & player pathways lead Brian Cardinal, and former NBA player Kerry Kittles.

There were also NBA assistant coaches Joseph Blair (Washington Wizards), James Penn (Memphis Grizzlies), Brian Randle (Detroit Pistons), Fred Vinson (New Orleans Pelicans), Ben Sullivan (Houston Rockets) and Mitch Johnson (San Antonio Spurs) on hand as BWB Europe coaches. And San Antonio Spurs general manager Brian Wright served as the camp director.

Over the past two decades, 38 former BWB Europe campers were among the 120 international players on opening-night rosters for the 2022-23 NBA season, including Danilo Gallinari (Washington Wizards; Italy; BWB Europe 2003), Deni Avdija (Wizards; Israel; BWB Europe 2018 and BWB Global 2019), Killian Hayes (Detroit Pistons; France; BWB Europe 2018 and BWB Global 2019), Dario Saric (Golden State Warriors; Croatia; BWB Europe 2010) and Jonas Valanciunas (New Orleans Pelicans; Lithuania; BWB Europe 2008).

The girls MVP Trygger helped the Wings team win the girls team competition, downing Sky 35-19 in the Final. Sintija Aukstikalnyte of Lithuania led the way with 10 points. Also on the Wings team were Maria Arrebola of Spain, the Belgium duo of Pauline Bayart and Kyra Bruyndoncx, Katie Cox of Great Britain, Poland's Maja Kusiak, Krista Lukasevica of Latvia, Kosovo's Etna Rexhepi and Ella Sahuri of Finland.

Slovenia's Tanja Valancic was the leading scorer with 5.4 points while Arrebola averaged a second-best 4.6 points including a girls high 14 points in one game.

The boys MVP Indrusaitis was not on the team competition winners as Wizards defeated Pelicans 27-26 in the Final. Savo Drezgic of Serbia scored 9 points in the Final to lead the Wizards in scoring. Also on the winning team were Yagiz Aksu of Turkey, Dwayne Aristode and Seal Diouf of Netherlands, Spain's Jorge Carot, Joel Cwik of Poland, Luxembourg's Dorian Grosber, Eleftherios Liotopoulos of Greece, Great Britain's Timothy Oboh and Olavi Suutela of Finland.

Montenegro's David Mirkovic was the leading scorer with 7.4 points followed by Bulgaria's Aleksandar Gavalyugov and Indrusaitis with 5.5 points per game. Diouf scored a competition high 14 points in a single game while Drezgic poured in 13 points in one game.

Kyra Bruyndoncx of Belgium was crowned the girls 3-point champion while Miriam Vilafranca was named the Defensive MVP and Etna Rexhepi of Kosovo received the girls Patrick Baumann Sportsmanship Award.

Germany's Christian Anderson took the honors as boys 3-point champion with France’s Killyan Toure winning Defensive MVP and Aymen Kraria was the boys Patrick Bauman Sportsmanship Award recipient.

Girls All Stars: Maria Arrebola (Spain), Irene Asensio (Spain), Sintija Auksikalnyte (Lithuania), Katie Cox (Great Britain), Eliza Farbas (Hungary), Sina Hollerl (Austria), Maja Kusiak (Poland), Tilda Trygger (Sweden), Tanja Valencia (Slovenia), Jann Vogellar (Netherlands).

Boys All Stars: Christian Anderson (Germany), Neoklis Avdalas (Greece), Joel Cwik (Poland), Aleksandar Gavalyugov (Bulgaria), Nojus Indrusaitis (Lithuania), Jack Kayil (Germany), Urban Kroflic (Slovenia), Omer Mayer (Israel), David Mirkovic (Montenegro), Killyan Toure (France).

FIBA