BADALONA (Spain) - Unicaja are handing over their crown in Badalona on Saturday. Follow along as the Third-Place Game and the Final take place at the Season X Final Four.
Final: AEK BC vs. Rytas Vilnius
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Timeline
First quarter
Rytas start the game Martynas Paliukenas, Speedy Smith, Ignas Sargiunas, Kay Bruhnke and Arturas Gudaitis, no surprises there from the second youngest coach in the Championship Game.
AEK start with Dimitris Flionis, Frank Bartley, Vasilis Charalampopoulos, RaiQuan Gray and Keyshawn Feazell. No surprises there from the oldest coach in the Championship Game.
There's a difference of 31 years and 294 days between Dragan Sakota (73 years, 327 days) and Giedrius Zibenas (42 years, 33 days), the biggest age gap between two coaches in a BCL title game.
Strong start to the game by Charalampopoulos, his three and tip-in make it 5 personal, allowing AEK to open up a 10-4 lead and force the first timeout of the game, still in the first five minutes of the contest.
With all due respect to The Human Alphabet, Rytas could live with him getting hot, but when Frank Bartley caught fire, the lead ballooned to 25-15 at the end of one.
Bartley faced FOUR different guards in the first quarter alone, in Paliukenas, Harding, Marciulionis and Sargiunas. Nothing helped, 10 first quarter points for the MVP of the Season.
Second quarter
Only once before has a BCL final ended the first quarter with a bigger margin than today’s 10‑point gap - Virtus Bologna +12 vs. Tenerife in 2019.
As if Bartley's and Charalampopoulos' hot starts weren't enough, AEK got even better when Dragan Sakota went to his bench. James Nunnally hurried up to get 11 points in six minutes, his triple made it 34-19 and with 7:37 left in the half, Zibenas had to burn another timeout.
The only positive sign for Rytas in the first half was this monster dunk by Jordan Caroline.
That 34 in points allowed really hurt Rytas Vilnius - they allowed 34 points in the Semi-Finals entire first half, nowhere near that kind of defensive output in the Final.
More bad news for the Lithuanians: Never in a BCL Final has a team won after being down by 12 or more points.
At the half, AEK owned a 42-25 lead, with Nunnally's 13 and Bartley's 10 points. Nobody had more than five for Rytas, and Flionis' defense held Jerrick Harding scoreless in 11 minutes of action.
Rytas Vilnius scored only 25 points, their lowest scoring first half in 70 BCL games played. In fact, this is their lowest scoring half ever in the competition.
Third quarter
Quick info about the decade of BCL Finals: +17pts is the highest ever margin at halftime in a BCL title game.
AEK BC are only the fourth team starting the third quarter of a BCL final with a double-digit lead: all three previous teams became champions.
If there's a way back into this, it is through Speedy Smith, who is showing that he's the only one with prior Finals experience. He went 1-of-6 from deep in 2023, but made back-to-back triples to start Q3 and bring Rytas a bit closer. Still not in single digits deficit, though - 48-34, 5:57 to go in Q3.
With Flionis and Lukas Lekavicius pressuring Jerrick Harding, the shooting guard only scored his first free throw of the game midway through the third quarter.
By that point, Nunnally pushed AEK's lead all the way to +20, cruising towards their second championship.
He got to 20 points for the game with 2:23 to play in Q3, setting a new record for most points off the bench in all BCL Finals.
Score after three: 63-45 AEK. Nunnally 20, Bartley 12; Bruhnke, Masiulis, Smith with 8 each.
Fourth quarter
The team leading at the end of the 3rd quarter have won all the previous nine BCL finals.
Harding finally found his first two field goals to start the final stanza, making a triple, following it up with a steal and a layup to close in to 65-53. Timeout Sakota, 8:23 to play.
Harding heating up got everybody else going for Rytas, and as Speedy Smith nailed three free throws, the gap was down to single digits for the first time since Q1, 74-65, 6:15 before the end.
With Speedy Smith doing exactly what his name suggests - speeding up the game - Rytas found confidence like we've never seen before. As Simonas Lukosius knocked down his fourth triple of the game, the score said 75-70, 3:50 to play, forcing another Sakota timeout!
Rytas got even closer with another Lukosius bomb, 78-75 to enter the final minute, and Jerrick Harding got them within one with 25 seconds to go - his 15 points in this 4th quarter are the most by any player in the last 10 minutes of a BCL final.
They then fouled James Nunnally to stop the clock, and the experienced shooter made it 80-77 with 22.6 left to play.
Coach Giedrius Zibenas called a timeout to draw up a play and he went with the unconscious Simonas Lukosius who made another triple, his sixth of the game - most by any player in BCL Finals history - to tie the score at 80-all with 19.3 left to play.
Over to you, Dragan Sakota! Full court possession after timeout, of course, to have the full game clock on his side. He set it up for Lukas Lekavicius, his shot did not fall, but neither did Smith's full court heave and FOR THE FIRST TIME IN BCL HISTORY we have an overtime in the Final Four!
Overtime
For the first time in 10 seasons, the BCL final will be decided in overtime.
Before this game, no player had ever come off the bench to score 20 points in a BCL Final and then both James Nunnally and Simonas Lukosius did it, 20 for Lukosius, 23 for Nunnally after four.
Lukosius wasn't done there. After Arturas Gudaitis had five straight points to start OT, Lukosius hit another corner three, opening an 88-80 lead with 3:22 to play.
AEK could not return from that gap, and Rytas created the largest comeback in BCL Final Four history, picking up their first title!
Final score: 92-86! Incredible scenes in front of 10 thousand fans in Badalona!!!
Third-Place Game: Unicaja vs. La Laguna Tenerife
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Timeline
First quarter
Playing the Third-Place Game is always more challenging mentally than physically. However, physical issues have kept Marcelinho Huertas out of La Laguna Tenerife's lineup in this one, resting from a minor (pulled muscle) injury in the Semi-Finals, while Rokas Giedraitis' season is, sadly, over.
Wesley van Beck and Thomas Scrubb are not only in the lineup, both are starters, alongside Bruno Fitipaldo, Tim Abromaitis and Giorgi Shermadini.
Kendrick Perry, Chase Audige, Jonathan Barreiro, Killian Tillie and David Kravish start the encounter for coach Ibon Navarro.
Speaking of coaches - Ibon Navarro (2 gold medals, 1 bronze) and Txus Vidorreta (2 gold medals, 2 silver, 1 bronze) are the two most titled coaches in BCL history.
Compared to their Semi-Finals, both teams finally found shooting strokes. Unicaja went 7-of-14 from the field, while Tenerife made 4-of-10 from deep, including Patty Mills' 2-of-2.
With Alberto Diaz providing the usual energy off the bench, Unicaja claimed a 24-22 lead after one.
The team leading at the end of the 1st quarter have won seven of the previous nine bronze medal games in the BCL.
Second quarter
With both teams fighting to win the game, by the mid point of the second stanza, we have already seen 10 lead changes and the game was tied six times.
Killian Tillie's three-pointer was the one that made it six ties, giving Tillie 10 points on the day - first man in double digits on both sides. Patty Mills quickly replied with a pair of threes of his own, rising to 14 points in a matter of seconds.
He already has four made three-pointers, after not making more than two in any of his five previous BCL appearances.
Tenerife opened up a 40-34 gap with 2:43 left in the half, but Unicaja refused to give up. End of Q2, Tenerife up 45-41, Mills 14, Shermadini 10 - this is his 80th double‑figure scoring game in the BCL, the most by any player in the competition’s history.
The team leading at halftime has won eight of the previous nine bronze medal games in BCL history, with the only exception being AEK's last season comeback against La Laguna Tenerife.
Four points is the smallest halftime margin ever recorded in a BCL Third‑Place Game.
Third quarter
Unicaja had a stronger start to the second half, putting together a solid run and getting 11 of their 12 players on the scoreboard, taking the lead briefly, until Txus Vidorreta found another answered, named Bruno Fitipaldo.
His triple gave Tenerife a 50-49 lead, but Unicaja quickly made it 52-50 at the other end, meaning 13 lead changes and 8 ties in 24 minutes.
Let's keep the counter going: At the end of the third quarter Tenerife owned a 62-60 lead, after 16 lead changes and 9 ties.
Patty Mills with made five threes by the end of the third, a joint-high in a 3rd place game in BCL history (Ludde Hakanson, 5/6 for UCAM Murcia in 2024), and he had a game-high 17 points, Shermadini right next to him with 14.
Tillie stayed at 10 points for Unicaja, while Olek Balcerowski joined him with the same amount, the Polish center's seventh game with 10+ points scored in the BCL, with Unicaja winning all the previous six.
However, the team leading at the end of the 3rd quarter has won eight of the previous nine bronze medal games in BCL history, with the only exception being AEK's last season against La Laguna Tenerife.
Fourth quarter
Friendly reminder halfway through the final stanza with the score tied at 72-all: We have never had an overtime game in Final Four history.
We wouldn't have one here, either. At least not in the Third-Place Game, as James Webb III knocked down the biggest triple of the game, in transition, pushing the gap to two possessions with just over a minute left.
Even though Jaime Fernandez made it interesting by cutting the gap to two points with 30 ticks on the clock, Unicaja kept their composure, collecting an 85-80 win to finish third.
Chase Audige had 15 points, Killian Tillie added 13, Tyler Kalinoski 12, and Olek Balcerowski 11 for coach Ibon Navarro.
Mills set his BCL season-high with 23 points, Shermadini stayed at 14, Fernandez had 13, while Fran Guerra finished with 10 for coach Txus Vidorreta.
This is Unicaja's third medal in the BCL, after finishing 1st in 2024 and 2025. This is the second bronze medal for Tyler Kalinoski, after also winning the 3rd place game in 2019, then with Telenet Giants Antwerp.
All three of Tenerife's bronze medal games have ended with margins of 5 or fewer points.