Turkish League finals, Game 1: June 4, 2009
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 Fenerbahce Ulker took the home advantage in the Turkish League finals by beating city rivals Efes Pilsen 60-68 in a breathtaking Game 1 on the road at Ayhan Sahenk Arena on Thursday. The visitors took 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series to make a step forward toward what would be their third successive title. Efes had a good start, going up 15-12 after 8 minutes on Ender Arslan's free throws, but Fener reacted with a 0-7 run behind Omer Onan to lead 15-19 at the end of the first quarter. Efes responded with its own 8-0 series, based on points by Mario Kasun, Arslan and Preston Shumpert, to go back in front by 23-19. Fener continued struggling to score against Efes defense while Kerem Gonlum's layup increased the lead to 10 points, 34-24, after 18 minutes. Again, however, Fener finished the quarter strong, outscoring Efes 3-10 in just 100 seconds to reduce the gap to 37-34 at halftime. The defenses really took over after the break, as both teams shared a total of 8 baskets in the third quarter. Onan played the key role for Fener, putting his team back in front after a long time with his pair of triples at 41-42, Willie Solomon's first and only basket then came with a free throw, helping Fener head into the final quarter ahead by 45-49 ahead. Efes caught another scoring wave of 7-0 to start that fourth quarter as Shumpert and Charles Smith, who authored a triple, vaulted the hosts back on top at 52-49. After a scoreless 3 minutes and 30 seconds, Emir Preldzic broke the silence for Fener and Mirsad Turkcan followed him with free throws. Bootsy Thornton’s miraculous fade-away jumper soon tied the game for Efes at 56-56. Finally, however, consecutive and critical offensive rebounds in crunch time by Devin Smith led to layups as Fener pulled away in the last minutes of the game. When Turkcan increased the lead to 58-64 early in the last minute, that was the point of no return for Efes as Fener polished of the victory with another layup by Onan before the buzzer. Onan finished with a floor-high 20 points, to which Turkcan added 10, Preldzic and Smith 7 each. For Efes, Shumpert scored 12 while Thornton and Arslan had 11 each.
| Final Playoffs, best of 7 games |
| Record |
Team |
Game 1 |
Game 2 |
Game 3 |
Game 4 |
Game 5 |
Game 6 |
Game 7 |
| 0 |
Efes Pilsen (1) |
60 |
June 6 |
June 9 |
June 11 |
*- |
*- |
*- |
| 1 |
Fenerbahce Ulker(3) |
68 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| Finals Playoffs round games |
| Game 1 |
Efes Pilsen vs. Fenerbahce Ulker |
60-68 |
June 4 |
| Game 2 |
Efes Pilsen vs. Fenerbahce Ulker |
- |
June 6 |
| Game 3 |
Fenerbahce Ulker vs. Efes Pilsen |
- |
June 9 |
| Game 4 |
Fenerbahce Ulker vs. Efes Pilsen |
- |
June 11 |
| Game 5 |
Efes Pilsen vs. Fenerbahce Ulker |
- |
*- |
| Game 6 |
Fenerbahce Ulker vs. Efes Pilsen |
- |
*- |
| Game 7 |
Efes Pilsen vs. Fenerbahce Ulker |
- |
*- |
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