Turkish League Finals, Game 2: May 27, 2008
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Fenerbahce Ulker took another step on the path to its second straight Turkish Basketball League championship by beating Turk Telekom of Ankara 99-87 to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven finals series on Tuesday night in Istanbul. Some 10,000 fans at Abdi Ipekci Arena backed Fener, which led from start to finish. Erwin Dudley and Khalid El Amin threatened Fenerbahce with their impressive offensive game, but once again failed on defense and conceded 99 points, after having allowed 100 in the first game of the series. Fenerbahce Ulker was patient in the whole game, led by Willie Solomon with 23 points plus 6 assists, while Mirsad Turkcan added 22 points and 6 rebounds for the winners, who won their sixth consecutive playoff game. El Amin lead Telekom with 33 points and Dudley had 24 points. Game 3 of the series will take place in Ankara on Friday.
Semih Erden and Oguz Savas scored inside and Willie Solomon outside in the first quarter against the duo of Erwin Dudley and Khalid El Amin as El Amin tied the score at 25-25 in the last second of the first period. Fener had Mirsad Turkcan on charge in the second period as the veteran power forward joined Solomon inside and outside to crash the defense of Telekom. A Tarence Kinsey basket-plus-free throw made the score 36-31. Dudley and El Amin teamed up on offense, but Kinsey had another basket plus a bonus to make it 48-41. A Turkcan jumper with a minute to the break gave Fener its biggest lead of the first half – 8 points – before Kris Lang ended the first half at 52-46. Fenerbahce fired the game up in the beginning of the second half as a Turkcan triple made the score 59-48. El Amin and Tutku Acik hit three-pointers to keep Telekom in the game, but a Kinsey layup made it 68-59. Soon after, Acik protested to the referee for missing a foul on him and was slapped with a technical foul. He continued to argue and was disqualified from the game. Fener hit free throws by Solomon, Damir Mrsic and Kinsey to go ahead 73-59. Then Turkcan and Omer Onan increased the lead to 18 points. Dudley and El Amin tried to dig Telekom out of its hole and an El Amin jumper ended the third period at 80-69. The same duo kept on working for Telekom on offence and midway through the last period an El Amin layup reduced the gap to 84-79. But the experienced Turkcan’s critical buzzer-beating layup in the next offense and Omer Asik’s tip then made the score 88-79. A Solomon triple pushed the lead to double digits and Kinsey polished it with another jumper a little later to make it 93-81 as Fener won Game 2. Solomon led Fener with 23 points plus 6 assists, Turkcan had 22 points and 6 rebounds and Kinsey finished with 17 points and 5 rebounds. El Amin lead Telekom with 33 points, Dudley had 24 points and Lang added 10.
| Finals Playoffs, best of 7 games |
| Record | Team | Game 1 | G. 2 | G. 3 | G. 4 | G. 5 | G. 6 | G. 7 | | 2 | Fenerbahce Ulker(3) | 100 | 99 | May30 | June1 | *- | *- | *- | | 0 | Turk Telekom (4) | 72 | 87 | - | - | - | - | - |
*In Turkey, if one team won both regular season games between them,
their playoff series begins 1-0 in that team's favor.
| Finals games | | Game 1 | Fenerbahce Ulker vs. Turk Telekom | 100-72 | May 25 | | Game 2 | Fenerbahce Ulker vs. Turk Telekom | 99-87 | May 27 | | Game 3 | Turk Telekom vs. Fenerbahce Ulker | - | May 30 | | Game 4 | Turk Telekom vs. Fenerbahce Ulker | - | June 1 | | Game 5 | Fenerbahce Ulker vs. Turk Telekom | - | *- | | Game 6 | Turk Telekom vs. Fenerbahce Ulker | - | *- | | Game 7 | Fenerbahce Ulker vs. Turk Telekom | - | *- |
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Gökhan Türe, Istanbul
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