BADALONA (Spain) - While the first game of Tuesday's action in the Quarter-Finals of the Basketball Champions League, powered by Ameresco SUNEL, gave us the first BCL Final Four participant, everything is now tied between Asisa Joventut and AEK BC.
This season's Final Four hosts didn't want to surrender after their opening loss in Athens, and fought back at home in Game 2, winning 88-66 to push back the series to the Greek capital.
Turning Point
As soon as James Nunnally's three started dancing around the net in Game 1 in front of a rocking atmosphere in Athens' SUNEL Arena, Joventut already knew they had to make a statement in Game 2.
That's probably the turning point for their revenge delivered at the Palau Municipal d'Esports de Badalona.
They were ready to go from the first quarter, ending it up by 14 points (27-13) following a buzzer-beating three by Miguel Allen. From then on, they never looked back and even got a 28-point lead (66-38) in the third.
Player of the Game
When Ricky Rubio made his lovely return to Badalona back in the summer of 2025, everybody was dreaming about the Spanish legend playing at the highest stage with his childhood club.
Forced to lead his team to victory to avoid an early goodbye to the BCL Final Four at home, Ricky's brilliancy showed up in front of the green-and-black fans.
Rubio was all over the place on the floor, finishing with 13 points (8 in one minute in the third quarter), 6 assists, 5 rebounds, and 3 steals for Joventut. Just a regular Tuesday night for Ricky.
Stats don't lie
36:52. That's for how many minutes Joventut had the lead against AEK at home in Game 2. They did it in dominant fashion, overscoring they opponents in several stats.
Dani Miret's team were way better than the black-and-gold Greek opponents in points scored off turnovers (19-0), fast-break points (27-6), and points scored in the paint (48-26). Completely in control to tie the series at 1-1.
In fact, they became the first team to hold opponents to 0 points from turnovers this season, and the sixth team to do it in BCL history.
Bottom line
Still without Ante Tomic and Simon Birgander, other Joventut players joined Ricky Rubio to contribute for the crucial win in Game 2.
In fact, five more people on Joventut's roster finished by scoring in double-digits: Henri Drell (12 points over 5-of-6 from the field), Jabari Parker (12 points and 4 rebounds), Miguel Allen (11 points and 4 rebounds), Adam Hanga (11 points, 6 assists, and 4 rebounds), and Cameron Hunt (10 points).
On the losing side, AEK need to get back to their usual habits and standards, keeping the tension in Badalona to find themselves again in Athens.
Head coach Dragan Sakota and the Queen's leader RaiQuan Gray, both ejected during the encounter, will circle the date of Game 3 (April 15 at 18:30 CET) as the most important game of Season X.
They said
"We’re obviously very happy with the win. Of course, this was a must win game for us, to defend our home court. I think we started the game really well. We went out with really good energy, building an early lead, then we just kept building on that. We had a good rhythm and everybody did an excellent job. We were moving the ball, we were closing down the boards, and overall just a dominant game for us." - Michael Ruzic, Asisa Joventut