BADALONA (Spain) - The 2026 Basketball Champions League Final Four finished on Saturday, with Rytas Vilnius edging out AEK BC 92-86 in overtime in the Final in front of 10,372 fans at the Palau Municipal d'Esports in Badalona.
The Lithuanian powerhouse made history, becoming the first team to overturn a double digit deficit in the Championship Game. They trailed by as many as 20 points (55-35, midway through the third quarter), but won the final quarter 35-17 to force overtime.
It was the first overtime in the ten seasons of the BCL Final Four events, and Rytas won it 12-6 to secure the title.
With this win, Rytas Vilnius became the seventh different winner of the Basketball Champions League, powered by Ameresco SUNEL, and added Lithuania to the list of BCL winners, following Spain (6), Greece, Italy and Germany.
Overall, the Final win was Rytas' seventh in a row in the BCL, setting their new longest winning streak in this competition. They went 4-2 both in the Group Phase and the Round of 16, before eliminating ERA Nymburk in the Quarter-Finals 2-0, and defeating former champions La Laguna Tenerife and AEK at the Final Four.
Rytas also had the Most Valuable Player of the Final Four. Simonas Lukosius made all the difference in the Final, setting a new Finals record with seven made three-pointers, finishing the game with 23 points and hearing the MVP chants from a large group of Rytas' traveling fans.
In the Third Place Game, Unicaja defeated La Laguna Tenerife 85-80 to finish on the podium for the third straight season. Previous winners of the Basketball Champions League 2016-17 Iberostar Tenerife (Spain) 2017-18 AEK (Greece) 2018-19 Segafredo Virtus Bologna (Italy) 2019-20 Hereda San Pablo Burgos (Spain) 2020-21 Hereda San Pablo Burgos (Spain) 2021-22 Lenovo Tenerife (Spain) 2022-23 Telekom Baskets Bonn (Germany) 2023-24 Unicaja (Spain) 2024-25 Unicaja (Spain)