European basketball powerhouse Anadolu Efes successfully defended the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague title by beating Spanish giant Real Madrid 58-57 Saturday.
The game started off slow as both sides could not score for almost two minutes at Belgrade's Stark Arena.
Real Madrid finished a slow-paced first quarter, 15-14, in front with its effective offensive rebounds.
Despite Shane Larkin and Vasilije Micic trying to rally Efes by dropping 23 points in the first half, Los Merengues widened its lead to five points at the end of the second quarter and the first half ended 34-29.
Only Larkin and Micic scored 23 points of Efes, while Real Madrid scored from nine different players in the first half.
Efes' James Anderson and Real's Vincent Poirier had a row after a challenge and both players were penalized with an unsportsmanlike foul in the third quarter, which ended with a 42-40 lead for the Spaniards.
Anadolu Efes took the lead at the beginning of the last quarter and managed to stay on top in the end, with German center Tibor Pleiss' vital points, and won the final 58-57.
Efes restricted Real Madrid to only 23 points in the second half with a good defensive play.
Micic, who was also selected as the Final Four MVP, dropped 23 points, while Pleiss and Larkin added 19 and 10 points, respectively.
Walter Tavares was the best player of the game for Real Madrid with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
The game marked the third overall EuroLeague title for Turkey, as Fenerbahçe Beko won the 2016-17 title.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan congratulated Anadolu Efes' European victory.
"My heartfelt congratulations to the Anadolu Efes basketball team, our country's pride," he wrote on Twitter.
