Athens clinch Saporta Cup
At the end of an extraordinarily tense final in Lausanne on Tuesday night, AEK Athens secured the Saporta Cup for the first time in their history, defeating Kinder Bologna 83-76.
In the opening stages, the Italians burst clear with a 0-7 start, sparked by ex-Miami Heat guard Sasha Danilovic who hit 12 of his game-high 18 points in the first half. But Athens recovered through some fine outside shooting from Nick Chatzis to enter the break 46-33 in front.
Bologna rallied back, closing within two points with two minutes left but could not re-take the advantage and lost out to the Greeks, a reverse of the result of the 1998 Euro League final which the Italians won.
Chatzis led the victors with 16 points although England international team-mate Steve Hansell failed to score in 13 minutes off the bench, the same tally as Irishman Dan O'Sullivan.
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