Wiggins captures Rising Stars Challenge MVP, leads World over USA

This is just the first of many stops in Andrew Wiggins' rise to superstardom.

The Minnesota Timberwolves shooting guard captured Most Valuable Player honors in leading Team World to a 121-112 victory over Team USA in the NBA Rising Stars Challenge during NBA All-Star Weekend on Friday.

Wiggins scored a game-high 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting and chipped in with six rebounds and four assists in the victorious effort. For good measure, Wiggins added in a few highlight dunks to punctuate his performance.

As usual, the Rising Stars Challenge featured loose play and passive defensive effort. The two sides took turns yielding the lane for open dunks, which opened the floor for high-flyers like Wiggins, Zach LaVine and Rudy Gobert to line highlight reels with plenty of footage.

The game tightened up towards the final moments of the second half. Defenses tried to clamp down as play slowed down. Team USA cut its deficit to three points with just over two minutes remaining, but Wiggins finished off a tough And-1 lay-in to put his team up for good.

Victor Oladipo and LaVine finished with 22 points apiece to lead Team USA in scoring. Wiggins led Team World with 22 points of his own, while Gobert chipped in with 18 points, 12 rebounds and three highlight-worthy blocks.

Wiggins' performance comes on the heels of capturing Rookie of the Month honors in the Western Conference over the first three months of the season. On the year, Wiggins is averaging 15.2 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.1 steals per contest.