Vassilis Spanoulis and Ekpe Udoh lead their teams to Euroleague Championship game

This year’s Euroleague Final Four went a similar path to last year’s Final Four. One game was so exciting we may never forget it, while the other is one we’re all trying to forget.

CSKA Moscow — Olympiacos:

With a little under two minutes left in the game, Vassilis Spanoulis knocked down one of his signature step-back 3s to give Olympiacos a 74-73 lead, their first lead since the early moments of the game.

Spanoulis hadn’t even attempted a 2-point field goal when he checked in with seven-and-a-half minutes left in the fourth quarter, but it didn’t mean anything as he rose to the big occasion for the millionth time in his career. Spanoulis scored 10 points in the fourth and after he gave his team the lead with a little under two minutes left, they never looked back again.

When CSKA Moscow Head Coach Dimitrios Itoudis was asked post game if he had a plan for Spanoulis he simply responded, “are you joking?”

A team effort got Olympiacos past CSKA as Spanoulis, Georgios Printezis and Kostas Papanikolaou tied for a team-high 14 points. Vangelis Mantzaris added 12 of his own and Erick Green and Dimtrios Agravanis each finished with 8.

Milos Teodosic and Nando De Colo finished with 23 points and 16 points respectively for the defending champions.

But neither of them could match the clutch shot-making from Olympiacos. Teodosic had a fantastic chance to steal the moment. Papanikolaou missed a 3-pointer as the Reds led 79-77 and with 12 seconds left Teodosic grabbed the rebound and pushed. Olympiacos chose not to foul and Teodosic got a great look at a transition pull-up 3-pointer but he just barely missed. Spanoulis grabbed the rebound after that and went 1-of-2 from the line.

From there, Olympiacos continued to foul CSKA whenever they got the ball and didn’t let them shoot a 3. The game ended with a final score of 82-78, and Kill Bill has a chance to win his third Euroleague title in six seasons with Olympiacos.

Real Madrid — Fenerbahce:

Ekpe Udoh flirted with a triple-double — 18 points, 12 rebounds, 8 assists — as Fenerbahce just overwhelmed Real Madrid in the second game of Saturday’s Euroleague Final Four action.

Fenerbahce only won by nine, 84-75, but had a 16-point lead, 68-52, two minutes into the fourth quarter.

Even with Udoh’s near triple-double in 38 minutes, it wasn’t just him who led Fenerbahce to victory. Bogdan Bogdanovic added 14 points and Jan Vesely added 12. But it was Nikola Kalinic who was probably Fenerbahce’s second best player on the day as he finished with 12 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 steals.

“We played tonight against a team that dominated the regular part of the EuroLeague. We were ready for a very tough and physical game. And I am very happy about how we played a full 40 minutes,” said Coach Zeljko Obradovic, according to Eurohoops.net. “It’s impossible to play a perfect game, but tonight I believe that we played a very good game,” he added as he was very impressed with the incredible team-effort that led his team to victory.

Sergio Llull did everything he could to help keep his team in the game but it wasn’t nearly enough. Llull finished with 28 points and 8 assists. Real trailed 23-13 at the end of the first quarter and Llull had 11 of their 13 points. He sat for three minutes at the start of the second quarter and in that time Real struggled to get the ball below the 3-point line, let alone score.

“We didn’t meet the standard we had to meet to play a game like this, especially against such a hard team as Fenerbahce, who punishes your mistakes,” Llull said after the game. He added, “they played better, they deserved to win and now we have to think about the Spanish League. I always try to play at my best level, but I also made mistakes. When we win, we all win, and when we lose, we all lose.”

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Jaycee Carroll came off the bench for Real in the second quarter and provided a spark that allowed them to hang around and give hope for an eventual comeback. Carroll played a fantastic game as he was the only other player who finished in double-digits for Los Blancos with 21 points, shooting 5-of-7 from downtown.

With this win Fenerbahce will face-off with Olympiacos on Sunday, May 21, for the Euroleague title.