AEK is the proud winner of the 2019 FIBA Intercontinental Cup, a trophy it has won for the first time in its history to become the third Greek club after Panathinaikos and Olympiakos to reach for the global throne.
In the tournament’s final AEK defeated host Flamengo at Rio de Janeiro with an 86-70 score, after downing America’s champion San Lorenzo in Friday’s semifinal.
Flamengo posed a stronger challenge to AEK than San Lorenzo, but the Basketball Champions’ League winner had the answers to all of the questions the Rio team posed to it.
The Greeks imposed their game in the first half after which they led 42-33, and fended off a Flamengo comeback effort that brought the distance down to five (47-42) to pull away in the fourth period by up to 22 poitns (84-62) with the winner never being in doubt.
AEK was much more composed than its host, as the difference in turnovers (20 by Flamengo, six by AEK) also illustrates.
Jordan Theodore stood out among the AEK players with 22 points, though the entire team of Italian coach Luca Banchi deserves credit for a rare title won by a Greek team on the other side of the world.
