Daily highs: Bulgarian hero leads the way, Perry and Kurucs steal the show

MUNICH (Germany) - An eight-game slate on Sunday saw a lot of close encounters and low scoring battles but there were were plenty of big individual performances to choose from in the backdrop of FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 winners Germany and FIBA EuroBasket 2022 champions falling to unexpected defeats.

The Bulgarian fan favorite Codi Miller-McIntyre scored the most points on the day, leading the Bulgarian upset with 23 points and providing the much needed punch to take down the world champions Germany in Botevgrad. He edged out Day 1 leader Klemen Prepelic, who had 21 for Slovenia against Israel, while Portugal's Miguel Queiroz also scored 21 to hand his team a win over Ukraine.

The rebounding belonged to three players. Oscar Da Silva grabbed 12 boards for Germany in that aforementioned defeat, Sertac Sanli had 12 rebounds to go with his 20 points in a buzzer beating Turkiye win at home, while Mike Tobey pulled down 12 for Slovenia.

Only one player reached double digits in assists. Olekandr Kovliar dished out 10 assists for Ukraine, but was not able to give his team a win. Kenan Sipahi and Prepelic had 7 assists each for Turkiye and Slovenia, respectively.

Sipahi and Prepelic are both enjoying solid individual season in the Basketball Champions League, as are the daily leaders in steals. Unicaja's Kendrick Perry stole the ball five times for Montenegro in a comfy win over Sweden, while UCAM Murcia's Rodions Kurucs had another big game with 5 steals for Latvia against Slovakia.

Four players topped the charts in blocks. Tryggvi Hlinason (Iceland), Ismael Bako (Belgium), Akos Keller (Hungary) and Vyacheslav Bobrov (Ukraine) all had 3 blocks, but Bako was the only one on the winning side, helping Belgium take down the reigning FIBA EuroBasket champs Spain.

FIBA