BEIJING (China) - Club Atletico Boca Juniors bounced back after their Semi-Finals defeat to Rytas Vilnius to defeat the RSSB Tigers 93-62 in the Third Place Game at the FIBA Intercontinental Cup 2026.
The Argentine juggernauts led from start to finish, putting South America back on the podium for the first time since Sesi Franca (Brazil) won the event in Singapore in 2023.
YouTube highlights
Turning point
Pre-game. That's when coach Henry Mwinuka learned that minor injuries and precaution would keep Craig Randall II, Teafale Lenard Jr, Nisre Zouzoua, Tyler Bey and Jonathan Galloway out of the lineup, with Johnny Hamilton already out of the roster despite making the trip to Beijing.
With so many absentees for the Tigers, Boca Juniors made it a one-way street from tip-off to the final buzzer.
They reached a double digit advantage early in the second quarter, and it was a 23-point game by halftime, with all 12 players scoring for Boca, and dishing 15 first half assists.
Game hero
It could've been plenty of guys, but let's pick Francisco Caffaro to reward him for an impressive tournament, overall.
The 26-year-old center needed less than 15 minutes to collect 12 points and 4 rebounds, with his attitude and impact showing everybody in Beijing why he was named the Most Valuable Player of the Basketball Champions League Americas Finals.
Honorable mention: Leo Lema, 12 points and 12 rebounds.
Stats don't lie
Hard to pick a single stat line as the crucial one, since everything went Boca's way.
Their domination inside gave them a 65-31 edge in rebounds, and 48-14 in points in the paint.
Bottom line
Boca Juniors came in to win the Intercontinental Cup, as Nicolas Casalanguida mentioned before this game, but in the end had to settle for third.
However, with the way they played the game, the way they shot the ball and moved it around, they earned plenty of new supporters all over the world with this performance.
The Tigers dreamed of going all the way as the first ever Rwanda representative at the FIBA Intercontinental Cup. However, with all those injuries, this was always going to be an uphill battle for the Basketball Africa League champions.
Behind Boca Juniors in third and RSSB Tigers in fourth, the Beijing Royal Fighters finished fifth, ahead of bottom placed Shanghai Sharks.