After A Phenomenal Season, Temi Fagbenle Wins Polish Cup MVP
If you take one thing away from this season of overseas basketball, it’s this: Temi Fagbenle is dominating. On Sunday, she added another impressive line to her resume—Polish Cup MVP.
After leading her team, CCC Polkowice to victory in the Polish Cup, Fagbenle was honored as the tournament’s best player after double-doubling in the final, scoring 14 points and adding 11 rebounds.
Fagbenle’s strong play is nothing new—she’s having a phenomenal season. In Polish League play, she averaged 13.6 points, 7.3 rebounds, 1.3 assists a steal and a block. She also shot 53.1 percent from the field. Fagbenle was even better in EuroBasket Women’s Qualifiers for Great Britain—she averaged 15.3 points and 9.3 rebounds, adding 1.1 steals and an assist.
Overseas update: Congrats to @TemiFagbenle who was named the Polish Cup MVP on Sunday after finishing with a double-double of 14 points on 7/14 shooting and 11 rebounds! @CCC_Polkowice defeated Energa Toruń 66-45. #Lynx pic.twitter.com/cX6gImTapd
— Lynx PR (@Lynx_PR) January 21, 2019
The talented young forward’s development continues to be a good story for the Lynx. As free-agency and the WNBA draft approach, it’s important to have a sense of the roles returning players will play on the team. The Lynx got to see flashes of what Fagbenle is capable of towards the end of last season, but if she can carry some of her production from overseas over to WNBA play on a more consistent basis, that would be big news for the Lynx.
Fagbenle’s opportunities were limited last year backing up arguably the best center in the league in Sylvia Fowles, but Fagbenle has the skills to play the four as well, and if she can lock down her defensive fundamentals to a point where she can stick with smaller, faster power forwards, we could see coach Cheryl Reeve play Fagbenle and Fowles together to give the Lynx a huge size advantage on opponents. Fagbenle has also been working on her three-point shot—if she can add that and unlock the ability to play a stretch-four role she could find herself with a lot more minutes to work with.
It’s never certain how overseas production will translate to the WNBA. The WNBA is the best league in the world and the level of defense players face here is different than overseas where the talent pool is more diluted. However, getting to play a full overseas season and do so well can only be a good thing for Fagbenle.