BCL, Final Preview: AEK vs Burgos

BCL, Final Preview: AEK vs Burgos

AEK and Burgos will square off in the 2019-2020 BCL Final tonight at 19:00 CET

AEK and Burgos will square off in the 2019-2020 BCL Final tonight at 19:00 CET. Together with the fourth trophy of BCL history, the winning team will take home the one-million prize money, as it was confirmed yesterday in the roundtable by Basketball Champions League CEO, Patrick Comninos.

AEK will play its second BCL Final, after winning it all in 2018 at OAKA. Burgos instead is playing his first BCL season, and went all the way from the Qualifiers to the Final.

This is what happened in the first three years of the BCL:

– Winning team: Iberostar Tenerife (2017). MVP: Marius Grigonis
– Winning team: AEK (2018). MVP: Mike Green
– Winning team: Virtus Bologna (2019). MVP: Kevin Punter

Here’s some facts and stats ahead of the BCL Final:

– The team leading after the first quarter in a BCL final always managed to win the game; also, the last two BCL finals have seen the winning team never trailing during the game.
– AEK and San Pablo Burgos faced each other during the regular season, with a home win apiece; In fact, AEK have suffered their heaviest defeat in the BCL against San Pablo Burgos, during their trip to Spain earlier this year (-17, 76-93).
– San Pablo Burgos have won their last five games in the BCL, their best run; they have lost five of their eight away games in the competition, with five of those eight games being decided by a margin of five points or less.
– San Pablo Burgos could become the second team in a row to be crowned BCL Champion for their first season in the competition, after Segafredo Virtus Bologna in 2019.
– AEK have won six of their eight games played against a team from Spain in the BCL (L2), losing only once at home in that span, against team Movistar Estudiantes in October 2017 (79-87).
– AEK have scored 90+ points in each of their four playoffs games in the BCL this season after reaching the 90-point mark in only two of their previous 14 BCL playoffs games; AEK are also the only team to have reached triple-digit in scoring in a BCL final game (100-94 v Monaco in 2018).
– AEK (93.8ppg) and San Pablo Burgos (88ppg) boast the best offensive records of the BCL playoffs this season; they are also two of the four teams to average 10+ 3-pointers made per game in the BCL this season (San Pablo Burgos 1st, 11.4 and AEK 4th,10.3).
– San Pablo Burgos (1st, 1.19) and AEK (4th, 1.15) are two of the four teams to average the best points per possession in the BCL 2019/20.
– AEK’s Yanick Moreira and Burgos’ Dejan Kravic are the two players that will compete in the BCL final 2020 to have already be crowned BCL Champions; it was last season when they both played for Segafredo Virtus Bologna. Only one player has been a BCL Champion twice before: Kevin Punter in 2018 & 2019.
– Keith Langford scored 30 points against San Pablo Burgos at the O.A.C.A. on gameday 5, his best tally in a BCL game; he has scored 309 points this season in the BCL, the joint-fifth best tally for a player in a BCL season (K.Punter 387 in 2017/18, V.Hunter 324 in 2018/19, K.Punter 319 in 2018/19 & T.Rice 311 in 2018/19).
– Keith Langford is the co-leading pointscorer of this Final Eight, with 36 points (alongside Axel Julien).
– Tyrse Rice, Nikos Zisis and Nikos Gkikas have all made 5+ assists in each of AEK’s two first games in this Final Eight, with only the latter being a starter.
– Vitor Benite is the only player to have scored 25+ points in multiple BCL playoffs games this season, including 25 in the semi-final against JDA Dijon.
– Ken Horton (19pts, 10reb) became during the semi-final against Dijon the first player to register a double-double while coming from the bench in a BCL Final Four/Eight game; Only one player has registered a double-double in a BCL final: Gediminas Orelik in 2017 with Teksut Bandirma against Iberostar Ten…

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