Fenerbahçe beats Real Madrid, sets up Olympiacos clash for Euroleague title

ISTANBUL

Hürriyet photo, Emre Oktay

Fenerbahçe dominated Real Madrid throughout the game in a Euroleague Final Four semifinal clash on May 19 on its way to a 84-75 victory , setting up a final against Olympiacos on May 21.

Buoyed by the support of its thousands of fans, Fenerbahçe started fast, leading by eight points at the end of the first quarter, and never looked back.

Man of the night Ekpe Udoh led scoring for the winning side with 18 points, and added eight assists and 12 rebounds to his brilliant performance. 

Jan Vesely chipped in 12 points, while Bogdan Bogdanovic posted 14 and Nikola Kalinic added 12. 

Sergio Llull scored 27 for Real Madrid, and was joined in his fight to survive only by Jaycee Carroll, who posted 19 points shooting five three pointers with 71 percent.

Fenerbahçe made a fast start to the game at the Sinan Erdem Dome in Istanbul and was ahead by seven points, 9-2, following an alley-oop dunk by Jan Veseley, two points of his total six, with 6:30 minutes to go.

With the support of thousands of fans, the Istanbul club never lost momentum and led throughout the quarter, leading by 10 points, 19-9 with 1:20 to go. 

Sergio Llull, who scored all but two points of his side, was the only Real player standing, but he could not slow down Fenerbahçe.

The second quarter started slow, and Nikola Kalnic’s three pointer with the 6:2 minutes to go was the only basket of the quarter, which in addition had seen two successful free throws from Luigi Datome.

Real Madrid’s first points came with 5:52 to go, when Trey Thompkins successfully converted two free shots, and Anthony Randolph followed with a three pointer 30 seconds later.

Llull continued his successful performance, adding another three pointer to cut the gap to five points.
Fenerbahçe raised back after that point and scores from Bogdanovic, Dixon and Veseley helped it keep tis distance with Real.

Earlier in the night, Greek club Olympiacos grabbed the first ticket to the final, beating CSKA Moscow 82-78.
Georgios Printezis led the winning side with 15 points and seven rebounds, while Vassilis Spanoulis and Kostas Papanikolaou added 13 points each.

Serbian veteran star Milos Teodosic, although he started on the bench, was the top scorer for the Russians with 17 points. He converted four three pointers in eight tries, but one he missed in the final minute of the game might have cost CSKA the victory.