BADALONA (Spain) - We like Saturdays, don't we? Well, we surely like this Saturday, the last gameday of Season X in the Basketball Champions League, powered by Ameresco SUNEL.
Starting with the Spanish derby for the bronze medal between Unicaja and La Laguna Tenerife, to finish with the big spectacle between Rytas Vilnius and La Laguna Tenerife in the BCL Final.
What better way to prepare ourselves than to take a look at 27 stats, facts, and must-know things to check about the BCL Finals? That's why we are here. Sit back, relax, and enjoy.
Unicaja vs. La Laguna Tenerife - May 9 at 17:00 CET
This will be the second time that two teams from the same country will face each other in the bronze medal game of a BCL season, and it was already Unicaja and La Laguna Tenerife that were involved, in 2023 with an 84-79 win by the Canarians.
Each of the last three Third-Place Games in the BCL ended with a margin of five points or fewer, after seeing five of the first six ending with a double-digit margin. The team leading at halftime has won the game in eight of the previous nine games for the bronze medal; the only exception was last year when AEK overturned an 11-point deficit after 20 minutes against Tenerife to win the game 77-73.
Unicaja will play the Third-Place Game for the second time in the BCL, after 2023 when they lost 79-84 against Tenerife. Following their titles in 2024 and 2025, they will attempt to become the second team to win a medal in three consecutive BCL seasons, after Tenerife between 2022 and 2024.
Unicaja lost in the Semi-Final against AEK (65-78), but have not lost consecutive games in the BCL since 2023, when they lost their Semi-Final against Telekom Baskets Bonn before losing in the Third-Place Game against Tenerife.
Unicaja have won five of their last seven BCL games played against a fellow Spanish team, scoring 80+ points in each of those five wins and failing to reach that mark in their two defeats in that span; they were leading at halftime in only two of those seven games, however.
Tenerife will play in the bronze-medal game for the third time in the BCL, winning 84-79 in 2023 against Unicaja and losing 73-77 against AEK last year. They will attempt to win their 6th medal in the competition (2 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze so far), at least two more than any other team (AEK, 4 - including 2026).
Tenerife’s defeat against Rytas in the Semi-Final (69-87) was their 6th defeat in the 2025-26 BCL, a joint-high for them in a single season (also 6 in 2024). They lost all four quarters in that Semi-Final against Rytas, only the second time for them in their 172 games in the BCL, after February 2024 when they lost all four against Hapoel Jerusalem in the Round of 16.
Tenerife are the only team averaging less than 10 turnovers per game in the 2025-26 BCL (9.8), and only one team has previously finished a BCL season with an average of fewer than 10 turnovers per game: Virtus Bologna in 2018-19 (9.2). However, Unicaja have scored more points from turnovers per game than any team this season (20.3).
Only Le Mans Sarthe Basket have made more three-pointers per game (10.4) than Unicaja (10.3) in the BCL this season, but only Legia Warszawa (6.0) have allowed fewer shots from behind the arc per game than Tenerife (7.4).
Kendrick Perry was the only Unicaja player to reach double digits in scoring in the Semi-Final against AEK (12 pts) and also dished the most assists for his team in that game (6 ast). He scored 17+ points in each of his previous two BCL games against Tenerife, including 22 in the third-place game in 2023.
Tyson Perez (Unicaja) has grabbed 5+ rebounds in 11 of his last 12 games in the BCL and has recorded his only double-double in the competition during his only previous medal-winning game (13pts and 11reb in the 2024-25 Final); however, Unicaja have lost three of their last four BCL games when Perez made an appearance on the court.
Tim Abromaitis (Tenerife) and Jonathan Barreiro (Unicaja) could both play their 6th medal-winning game in the BCL, the most among all players. They are part of the six players with 100+ BCL appearances that could feature in this game (also Giorgi Shermadini, Bruno Fitipaldo, Aaron Doornekamp, and Marcelinho Huertas).
Marcelinho Huertas (Tenerife) has averaged 18.0 points and 7.0 assists in his last six starts against teams from Spain in the BCL. He has always reached double-digits in scoring in his previous four medal-winning games in the competition and averaged 8.5 assists per contest in that span.
AEK BC vs. Rytas Vilnius - May 9 at 20:00 CET
AEK have reached the BCL Final for the third time, after 2018 (100-94 vs. Monaco) and 2020 (74-85 vs. San Pablo Burgos), while Rytas will be the first Lithuanian team to feature in the title game in the competition. AEK will attempt to become the fourth team - and the first non-Spanish one - to win the title game multiple times (also Tenerife, Unicaja, and Burgos).
Eight of the previous nine BCL Finals have been won by the team leading at halftime, the only exception was in 2022 when Tenerife won 98-87 against BAXI Manresa after trailing after the first 20 minutes. Moreover, none of the last five winners were trailing by more than four points in the Final.
AEK are the only team to have reached 100+ points in a BCL Final. It was in 2018 when they won 100-94 against Monaco; it was also one of the only two times that a team won the final game without trailing at any point in the game, alongside Virtus in 2019 against Tenerife.
AEK and Rytas will face each other for the first time in the BCL, despite having respectively played 155 and 68 games; AEK have won all their previous four games played against Lithuanian teams in the BCL, while Rytas have only won three of their last eight BCL games against Greek teams, but scored 90+ points in three of the most recent four.
AEK have won 14 of their 16 games in the BCL this season and will attempt to win 15 games for the first time in a single BCL campaign (also 14 wins in 2018-19). They have won six games in the 2025-26 BCL, despite trailing at halftime; only themselves in 2022-23 have won more such games in a single BCL season (8).
Rytas have won their last six games in the BCL, their joint-longest winning run in the competition (W6 in October 2024-January 2025), scoring more than 85 points in four of those games. They have allowed fewer than 70 points in each of their last two games but have never enjoyed a longer such run in the BCL.
Rytas need to score at least 82 points in this Final to become the second team to conclude a BCL season with an average scoring of 90+ points per game, after Unicaja in 2025 (93.4ppg); they currently have an average of 90.5 points per game this season.
Rytas are averaging 120.4 points per 100 possessions in the 2025-26 BCL, the most of all teams, and could become the first non-Spanish team to finish a BCL season with an average of at least 120 points per 100 possessions (Tenerife, 3 times, Unicaja, once).
Rytas have seen 54.2 percent of their allowed points coming from two-pointers, the highest ratio of all teams, but AEK are one of the other five teams this season to have seen more than half of their conceded points coming from that range (51.3%). AEK BC have also only allowed 7.4 three-pointers per game this season, only Legia Warszawa have conceded fewer (6.0).
Rytas are making 21.4 free throws per game in the 2025-26 BCL. Only two teams have previously finished a season with 20+ made per game: UCAM Murcia in 2022-23 (20.3) and Igokea m:tel in 2024-25 (23.2). However, it’s AEK that have the record of free throws made in a BCL Final, with 27 against Monaco in 2018.
Frank Bartley (AEK) has scored 294 points in the 2025-26 BCL and could become only the third player to reach 300 points in a single season under the current format (since 2020-21), after TJ Shorts II (331) and Marcus Foster (309), both in 2022-23. He has scored more than 15 points in nine of his last 10 games.
James Nunnally (AEK) has scored 10+ points in each of his last seven BCL games for an average of 16.0 points per game in that span. He has made at least one three-pointer in each of his last eight BCL appearances.
Following his 29-point performance in the Semi-Final against Tenerife, Rytas’ Jerrick Harding will attempt to become the first player to score 25+ points in his two games of the Final Four. He has already faced AEK once in the competition, it was during his very first BCL appearance, back in October 2020 with ERA Nymburk (16pts, 4reb, 2ast).
Speedy Smith (Rytas) is the only player in both lineups to have previously played a BCL Final; it was in 2023 with Hapoel Jerusalem (defeat vs. Bonn). He has already faced AEK three times in the competition and had one of his only three 20-point performances in the competition against them (20pts in April 2023).