By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
AEK had beaten the hosts of the Basketball Champions League Final Four and the defending champions on the way to the final.
Rytas on the other hand, in their first final with the club not being connected with the Lietuvos Rytas brand anymore, was the clear underdog.
And that was the story of the game for 32 minutes. AEK, which led even by 20, was up by 18 in the start of the last period and Rytas needed a miracle.
What happened in the next eight minutes and in the overtime of a game which will be remembered, was beyond the imagination of any Hollywood producer.
If somebody was intending to write such a script, he would be probably been asked to tone it down a bit and made the comeback more “believable”.
However, when it was all said and done, Rytas found the way to win a lost game and did in a way that nobody expected.
Rookie Simonas Lukosius earned his wings and he will be the star of the movie, ending the night with an improbable 70% in three-pointers, making big shot after big shot and sending the game to overtime.
Veteran big man Arturas Gudaitis who was a non-factor for most of the game, made big plays down the stretch, punishing the front line of AEK.
Rytas played as a unit, punishing miss-matches and had a coach in Giedrius Zibenas who believed until the last second that his team was able to perform a miracle.
It was a more than fitting end for the BCL decade milestone and we can’t wait for next season’s sequel.
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