The semifinal games on Friday night saw 2016 Turkish Airlines Euro-league’s two best teams reach the finals. Fenerbahce Istanbul and CSKA Moscow fully justified their performances in the last seven months, beginning with regular season in October 2015. Playing at Berlin’s Mercedes-Benz Arena on May 13, the two teams won their matches in contrasting styles to set up the title clash against each other on May 15. In the first match CSKA defeated Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar 88-81, while in the second; Fenerbahce Istanbul scored an extra-time 88-77 victory over Laboral Kutxa Vitoria Gasteiz and earned the honor of becoming the first Turkish club ever to enter the Euro-league final. Now CSKA Moscow will aim for their 7th Euro-league title, while Fenerbahce Istanbul will do their utmost to win the first-ever continental crown for their country.
In the first match, CSKA’s Euroleague MVP Nando De Colo fittingly began the scoring against Lokomotiv and led the initial charge. In less than 1½ minutes, CSKA led 7-0 and left Lokomotiv scoreless for more than 3 minutes. Finally, it was Malcolm Delaney, who scored the first points for Lokomotiv. But the quarter was entirely dominated by CSKA despite Lokomotiv coming close at 13-9. Victor Khryapa’s close-range point and brilliance of De Colo gave a huge 23-12 cushion for CSKA Moscow as the first quarter ended. Lokomotiv came back strongly in second quarter with Dontaye Draper knocking down a triple and a jumper to close the gap. Despite a three-pointer by CSKA’s Vorontsevich, Lokomotiv responded valiantly through Ryan Broekhoff’s triple. Another triple from Lokomotiv’s Matt Janning, Chris Singleton’s fine runner and Anthony Randolph’s 4 points brought the score to 47-37 by halftime.
The second semifinal between Fenerbahce Istanbul and Laboral Kutxa Vitoria Gasteiz was a more dramatic contest, where result came only after overtime. The game’s hero was Fenerbahce’s Bogdan Bogdanovic, who scored 9 out of his 18 points in the extra period. In the first quarter, Fenerbahce scored the first 13 points of the game through Ekpe Udoh, Luigi Datome, Bobby Dixon and Pero Antic. Adam Hanga’s baseline dunk brought Laboral’s first points after which, Ioannis Bourousis, Kim Tilie, and Darium Adams combined to rally and brought the scores to 15-13. However, Bogdanovic answered with a three-pointer before Ricky Hickman’s driving layup extended the margin. There were scores from Kostas Sloukas and Jan Vesely that gave Fenerbahce a 23-15 first quarter lead. In second quarter, Laboral reversed the trend with a dominant play led by Bourousis’ three-pointer and some close range shots. In between, Vesely and Bogdanovic brought the score to 30-24. Darius Adams was outstanding for Laboral and he got scoring help for Tillie and Bourousis as halftime ended with Fenerbahce having a narrow 41-40 lead.
The overtime belonged completely to Bogdanovic, who opened it with a triple. Although Hanga countered with a layup, Bogdanovic and Udoh took Fenerbahce’s lead to 79-74. Unluckily for Laboral, Bourousis missed 2 foul shots and Laboral couldn’t counter the charge of a marauding Bogdanovic, who restored the 9-point margin, before a corner triple from Sloukas brought a historic 88-77 victory for Fenerbahce.