Springfield News-Leader story | Bolivar Herald Free-Press story
BOLIVAR, Mo. -- Former Bearcat Jim Grabowski is back in the United States after finishing a season in Portugal, his second pro season overseas. Grabowski's club,
CB Penafiel, won the regular season and the Portuguese Cup. They finished second in the Proliga Division postseason tournament, dropping the finale, 81-76, of a five-game series to Lusitania.
Grabowski averaged 14.9 points per game while shooting nearly 60% from the field. His 8.9 rebounds per game ranked tenth in the league and he also chipped in with 3.0 assists a night, which ranked seventh. In the league title game with Lusitania, Grabowski led his team with 25 points and also had 10 rebounds.
Lusitania had tied with Penafiel during the regular season with 19-3 marks. Penafiel topped Angra 3-0 in the opening quarterfinal series of the Proliga tournament, then edged Electrico 3-2 in the semifinals.
Penafiel is located near Portugal's second largest city of Porto.
In 2008-09, Grabowski played in the Irish Superleague for Dublin's DART Killester. They won the Northern Division and placed second in the overall championship. Jim was named honorable mention All-Superleague. He averaged over 16 points per game and 7.5 rebounds.
Grabowski graduated from Southwest Baptist in 2008 after a highly successful career with the Bearcats. He was the first player in SBU history to play on two regular season MIAA championship teams, helping the Bearcats to titles in 2005-06 and 2007-08. He was selected to the All-MIAA first team in 2007-08.