BADALONA (Spain) - The Season X of the Basketball Champions League, powered by Ameresco SUNEL is set to conclude with the biggest four games of the term taking place at the Palau Municipal d'Esports de Badalona.
The draw paired up Rytas Vilnius and La Laguna Tenerife, and Unicaja and AEK BC in the Semi-Finals. Follow along as action unfolds.
Unicaja vs. AEK BC
Pre-Game
Unicaja have won their previous three games against AEK in the BCL, including the Semi-Final in 2025 (71-65); AEK have either scored 65 or 66 points in each of their previous three meetings with Unicaja.
Unicaja have won their last 10 games played in stages from the Quarter-Finals onward in the BCL; they have won their last two league Semi-Finals played and will attempt to become the first team to reach three Championship Games in a row in the competition.
AEK have always faced a Spanish side in a BCL Semi-Final (Unicaja x2, UCAM Murcia and Casademont Zaragoza), and they will play a Final Four away from home for the first time. Their first three appearances at that stage were all played in Athens (2018, 2020 & 2025).
If they beat Unicaja, AEK will become the second team to reach 100 wins in the BCL, after Tenerife (128).
First quarter
AEK start the game with Flionis, Bartley, Charalampopoulos, Gray and Feazell, while the defending champs sent Perry, Audige, Barreiro, Perez and Kravish. In other words, both teams with loads of physicality, Audige on Bartley, Flionis on Perry bringing the aggressiveness.
And it was a defensive battlefield across the first ten minutes, with both teams struggling to get anything going. AEK were just 4-of-11 from the field in the first quarter, but even that felt like a hot shooting day compared to Unicaja's 4-of-17.
The return of David Kravish brought back some of the pick-and-pop and short roll to midrange options in their offensive sets, but went just 1-of-8 from deep. Unicaja's with 9 points scored in Q1: only once before have they scored fewer in the first 10 minutes of a BCL game (4 vs. BAXI Manresa, April 2022).
AEK got a pair of nice finishes from their big guy Feazell, but they could consider themselves happy being up 14-9 after ten, as neither Bartley nor Gray had made a field goal.
Second quarter
With Unicaja struggling to make shots, coach Dragan Sakota found another trick up his endless sleeve. He handed the reigns of the offense to the hands of Dimitris Katsivelis and Lukas Lekavicius to start the second quarter, Gaios Skordilis came in as the finisher under the rim, and AEK found themselves up 26-16 midway through the stanza.
Good news, because: AEK BC have led by 10+ points in two of their previous three BCL semi-finals, advancing to the title game in each of those two occasions.
Once AEK's top scorer Frank Bartley got going with five in a row, Unicaja were facing even more bad news: down 33-16 with 2:26 to play in the first half, they had a mountain to climb, as they had won just one of their previous eight BCL games in which they faced a disadvantage of 14 or more points. They've never won a game after trailing by 17+ points.
AEK BC, on the other hand, have won 37 of the 38 games in which they were up by more than 15 points.
The Queen took a 37-21 lead to the locker room, nine different players scoring between 2 and 7 points for AEK, including this thunderous dunk by Greg Brown III.
Unicaja with 21 points scored, their joint-lowest in the first half of a BCL game (also v BAXI Manresa in April 2022), also the lowest scoring 1st half by any team in a BCL Semi-Final.
AEK BC held Unicaja to only 21 points in the first half - only once before have they allowed fewer points in the first 20 minutes of a BCL game (19 vs. Telekom Baskets Bonn in December 2024).
This is the second‑largest lead ever recorded in a BCL Semi‑Final. The largest one? Glad you asked - also AEK, +21 vs. Casademont Zaragoza in 2020.
Third quarter
Unicaja started building a comeback, all it took were a couple of made three-pointers to show us how many fans of theirs were in the stands, all over the arena.
However, coach Sakota just handed the ball to his best player - Bartley responded with an assist for Feazell's dunk, a stepback three-pointer, and two more free throws, pushing the lead to 44-31 with 5:42 to play in the third.
Bartley had another triple afterwards, taking his total to 13 points after three quarters, and as Lukas Lekavicius dropped a lefty layup, AEK took a 56-43 lead to the final 10 minutes of this encounter.
Fourth quarter
Mentioning Lekavicius in the last paragraph was no accident - the Lithuanian point guard played his second best game of the season, easily, rising to 12 points as the fourth quarter started.
AEK kept the gap in double digits until the final four minutes, as Ibon Navarro's game plan changed to zone defense and slowed their offense a bit. But Unicaja could not buy a bucket offensively, running into a wall once more when it mattered most, missing three straight possessions at -11.
It finished 78-65, ending Unicaja's run of two straight BCL championships. Bartley finished with 16 points, James Nunnally added 14 off the bench, same as Lekavicius. RaiQuan Gray was also in double digits with 10.
Kendrick Perry had 12 for Unicaja.
Rytas Vilnius vs. La Laguna Tenerife
Pre-game
La Laguna Tenerife have won three of their previous four meetings with Rytas Vilnius in the BCL but were defeated in the most recent one (78-85 in December 2022).
Rytas Vilnius will play their first semi-final in the BCL and Lithuania will become the 9th country to have a team representing them at that stage.
La Laguna Tenerife will play their 7th semi-final in the BCL, at least three more than any other team, the 5th one in a row; they have lost two of their last three appearances at that stage though after winning the previous three.
Rytas Vilnius have scored 90.8 points per game in the BCL this season, the highest scoring average of any team in 2025/26; only one team have ended a BCL campaign with an average of 90 or more points scored per game (Unicaja, 93.4ppg in 2024/25).
Rytas Vilnius head coach Giedrius Zibėnas (42y 31d) will go up against someone older than him on the floor - Marcelinho Huertas (42y 347d); this has happened just once before in a BCL Final Four: Lassi Tuovi (34y 127d) coaching against Omar Cook (39y 99d) and Alex Renfroe (34y 349d) in 2021.
First quarter
Martynas Paliukenas, Speedy Smith, Ignas Sargiunas, Kay Bruhnke and Arturas Gudaitis start the game for Rytas Vilnius. No surprises there, Paliukenas is there for extra ball pressure, while Jerrick Harding comes off the bench for extra scoring. Makes sense, Harding averages 20.2 off the bench, 17.7 as a starter in Season X.
Bruno Fitipaldo, Marcelinho Huertas, Rokas Giedraitis, Aaron Doornekamp and Giorgi Shermadini are La Laguna Tenerife's starters. Two guard lineup, as always, with Patty Mills in a similar role as Jerrick Harding on the other end.
Here's an Opta Fact for you immediately: La Laguna Tenerife’s starting five has an average age of 37 years and 289 days, the oldest starting lineup ever in a BCL Final Four game.
In a chess game, coach Giedrius Zibenas decided to go over the screens vs. Marcelinho Huertas, meaning everybody was sticking to their man and making the Brazilian a scorer. He accepted the offer, 8 first quarter points of the 17 Tenerife scored, but the rest of the team was ice cold.
On the other end, Speedy Smith made the only Rytas Vilnius three-pointer of the quarter, but they won the rebounding battle and got 10 points in the paint. Score after one: 18-17 Rytas.
Second quarter
While Rytas entered the game as the best offensive team of the competition, they created separation in the second quarter by completely pushing Tenerife out of their offensive flow with pressure defense and extra effort.
By making Marcelinho the scorer (12pts at the half), they took out Tenerife's passing game, holding them to just two (yes, 2) assists in the first 18 minutes.
Meanwhile, the idea on the offense was to let Jerrick Harding do his thing. He was held to single digits twice in the Quarter-Finals vs. Tenerife in 2023, no such issues in this one - Harding had 12 at the break, powering Rytas Vilnius to a 40-34 advantage after two quarters.
One bad note from the end of the half: Tenerife's Rokas Giedraitis went up for the block in the final ten seconds of the quarter, but landed awkwardly, grabbed his knee and was taken to the locker room immediately.
This is only the second time in their seven BCL semi‑finals that La Laguna Tenerife have trailed at halftime; they were eliminated on the only previous occasion (68-69 vs. Hapoel Jerusalem in 2023, 30-34 at the half).
Third quarter
It's always interesting to see the adjustments straight out of the locker room. Tenerife's starting five in Q3: Huertas, Mills, Sastre, Alderete, Shermadini.
Rytas went with Paliukenas, Smith, Harding, Bruhnke and Gudaitis. Both Mills and Harding straight in, no more coming off the bench after the break for them.
One more first half note for you: Tenerife grabbed more than twice as many offensive rebounds (9) as Rytas Vilnius (4) in the first half; however, the Lithuanians have scored more second‑chance points (7) than the Spaniards (6).
No changes in the defensive idea, though. Marcelinho kept on getting to the midrange, or if they took that away, he snake-dribbled into a Gortat screen for an and-one bucket en route to 21 points, waking Tenerife's fans up in the stands, as Tenerife crawled from -11 to -3 with four to play in Q3.
With 21 points before the fourth quarter, Huertas now has 20+ pts in three of his five BCL Semi-Finals, while no other player has done it more than once.
Rytas would not be that easily intimidated, though. Coach Zibenas called for time, his team responded by pushing the gap back to 62-53 at the end of the third. The way to do it? Jerrick Harding, of course - 19 points in 21 minutes of work through three.
Fourth quarter
The team leading at the end of the third quarter have won 16 of the previous 18 Semi-Finals in BCL history.
First bucket of the fourth for Rytas? That man again, Harding - making this his 17th game with 20 or more points scored: only Levi Randolph has had more than him (18; Zoltan Perl & another Rytas legend Marcus Foster also 17).
No matter what coach Vidorreta tried, nothing was working offensively for Tenerife, and since they shot 2-of-13 from deep in the first 33 minutes, Rytas could continue to pack the paint and risk with the outside shots more, staying in front with ease.
The lead ballooned with five minutes to play, as Harding sneaked in for a backdoor layup to make it 74-60.
With 26 points at that point of the game, Jerrick Harding has scored 25+ points in seven different BCL games, a joint-most in league history (also Kevin Punter, Levi Randolph and Keith Langford).
There was no magical comeback by Tenerife, as Rytas celebrated an 87-69 win to reach the Championship Game for the first time in club's history.
Harding finished with 29 points, despite going 0-of-4 from deep, and also had 5 assists. It was the second highest scoring performance in the history of the Semi-Finals, topped only by Kyle Guy's 34 points in 2024.
Marcelinho Huertas had a team-high 21 for Tenerife.