Basketball: Fenerbahce reaches Euroleague final

Istanbul giants Fenerbahce advanced to the Turkish Airlines Euroleague final after beating Spanish basketball club Laboral Kutxa Vitoria 88-77 in their semifinal match Friday.

The impressive victory in Berlin's Mercedes-Benz Arena made Fenerbahce the first Turkish basketball club to reach the Euroleague final.

Fenerbahce will play the final with Russian team CSKA Moscow on Sunday after winning semi-final thrillers garnished by a special fan atmosphere on Friday, while Laboral Kutxa Vitoria and Lokomotiv Kuban will vie for third place.

Fenerbahce became the first Turkish team to reach the final after an 88-77 overtime victory against Spaniards Laboral Kutxa Vitoria while CSKA overpowered fellow Russians Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar 88-81.

The semis produced basketball of the highest quality with the favourites living up to their billing against the season's surprise packages who had defied the odds to reach the Final Four.

Roared on by noisy fans who represented an overwhelming majority among the four sets of supporters forming a 14,000 crowd in the Mercedes-Benz Arena, Fenerbahce had to dig deep against plucky Laboral.

Fenerbahce, flourishing after several years of heavy investment by their owners, forced overtime thanks to their key players.

Last year, Fenerbahce lost against the Moscow club 86-80 in the third-place game of the Euroleague.

Six-time Euroleague winner CSKA Moscow has reached the finals 12 times before.