Fenerbahçe Beko beat city rivals Anadolu Efes 85-69 Wednesday to take the Turkish Basketball Süper Lig finals to a Game 7.
The Istanbul-based basketball club's Serbian shooting guard Marko Guduric was the man of the match against Anadolu Efes, scoring 21 points and collecting six rebounds in 24 minutes.
Italian Nicolo Melli scored 14 points and took down five rebounds. Melli's teammate, playmaker guard Kostas Sloukas scored 11 points and dished out eight assists. Ali Muhammed (Bobby Dixon) played with 11 points, seven rebounds and two assists.
Anadolu Efes was unable to avoid the away loss but its four players scored in the double digits. The top scorer for the visitors was point guard Shane Larkin with 16 points and three assists.
The other Anadolu Efes guards, Vasilije Micic and Krunoslav Simon scored 12 points each. American forward Bryant Dunston tallied 11 points and three rebounds.
The first team to four victories will win this season's Turkish basketball league title. The final game of the series will be played at Anadolu Efes' home court Sinan Erdem Dome today.
Anadolu Efes ruled the local league this season while Fenerbahçe dominated the Euro league. The team will be crowned with the top title for the 14th time if it defeats Fenerbahçe in the final series.
Under its former name Efes Pilsen, the team won its first title in the 1978-1979 season, and it was the undefeated champion for most of the 1990s. The team also boasts consecutive titles between 2001 and 2005. It won the top title for the last time in the 2008-09 season.
Fenerbahçe, on the other hand, holds three consecutive titles in the Basketball Süper Lig. It owes much to the famed coach Zeljko Obradovic who turned the team into a serious rival for Anadolu Efes and helped its rise in the EuroLeague.
There are no tensions on the court but the two teams are at odds everywhere else. The bitter rivalry between Fenerbahçe and Anadolu Efes turned into an escalated feud, especially over Anadolu Efes coach Ergin Ataman's "intimidation" toward Fenerbahçe, Fenerbahçe fans claim.
The veteran coach put on headphones again in Wednesday's match, an act he repeated in earlier games, to block out the chorus of insults from Fenerbahçe fans. Fenerbahçe, on the other hand, has accused Anadolu Efes of not allocating an ambulance for Luigi Datome, who suffered temporary memory loss in Game 5. The Turkish Basketball Federation on Wednesday ordered Fenerbahçe to play two away games without fans as punishment over "ugly insults" by Fenerbahçe fans in Game 5 and slapped the club with a fine.
Fener's Deputy Chairman Semih Özsoy was also fined for his "insults" during Game 4. Anadolu Efes was also fined TL 15,000 for "incidents involving fans" in Game 5.