Real Madrid beats Fenerbahce, qualifies to third straight final

Real Madrid dominated the second quarter and then held on the rest of the way for a 96-87 victory over Fenerbahce Ulker Istanbul in the second semifinal at the 2015 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four at Barclaycard Center in Madrid. Los Blancos will face Olympiacos Piraeus in Sunday’s championship game, which is also a rematch of the 2013 final, which Olympiacos won in London. Gustavo Ayon starred for the winners with a season-high 18 points plus 7 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals. K.C. Rivers added 17 points on 5of-6 three-point shooting; Madrid’s 14 three-pointers tied a Final Four record! Sergio Rodriguez tallied 13 points and 7 assists, Sergio Llull scored 12 and dished 9 assists and Andres Nocioni and Rudy Fernandez also scored 12 apiece. Andrew Goudelock racked up 26 points to lead Fenerbahce, which played its first ever Final Four game. Jan Vesely recorded 20 points and 10 rebounds, Rising Star Award winner Bogdan Bogdanovic added 12 and freshly crowned Euroleague MVP Nemanja Bjelica scored 11 before fouling out. He was one of five players that fouled out in what was a very physical game. Things were close early as the first quarter featured eight lead changes. But a 14-2 run to start the second quarter put Madrid in control. After back-to-back threes by Llull and Rudy to start the second half made it 61-35, Madrid cruised. Fenerbahce did not quit and closed the gap to 10 with two minutes remaining, but ran out of time to seriously threaten.