Bilbao Basket (Surne Bilbao for sponsorship reasons) has been crowned for the second year in a row in the FIBA Europe Cup, defeating PAOK Athens (PAOK mateco) with an aggregate scored of 162-153 after losing the first leg 79-73 but dominating in the second leg, 74-89, that was played in Bilbao, with 10,000 local fans and 600 Greek supporters.
On their path to the finals, Bilbao defeated Hungarian team Falco Szombathely and PAOK defeated Spanish team UCAM Murcia. This competition was created ten years ago, replacing the FIBA EuroChallenge, and has previously been won by two German teams, Fraport Skyliners and Ninner Chemnitz; one Polish team, Anwil Włocławek; one Turkish team, Bahçeşehir Koleji; one Israeli team, Ironi Nes Ziona; one French team, Nanterre 92; and two Italian teams, Dinamo Sassari and Reyer Venezia.
It is the second title for Bilbao in a row in this second-tier annual basketball competition, virtually the third tier after the Euroleague, which operates outside of FIBA, at least before the NBA Europe arrives and changes the whole European basketball ecosystem again...
