Anadolu Efes move into Top 8 despite loss against Fenerbahçe

Anadolu Efes joined Fenerbahce Ulker in the Top 8 of the EuroLeague on Thursday night despite losing out to their cross-town rivals in an intriguing battle at the Ulker Arena.

Fenerbahce, who had long locked up a place at Europe's top table, had little to play for going into the game but were still able to pull off an 11-point win, taking the victory 83-72.

With CSKA Moscow beating EA7 Emporio Armani Milan, Fenerbahce had to settle for second place in Group F and will face reigning champions Macabbi Tel Aviv in the Top 8, with the first game being played next week.

After the defeat, Efes were left waiting to hear of the result from Spain where Unicaja Malaga played Laboral Kutxa Vitoria, with the latter able to take Efes's spot in the Top 8 with a win. Luckily for the Istanbul side, Laboral Kutxa Vitoria lost to Malaga, granting Efes a safe passage into the Top 8 for the second time in three years.Efes coach Dusan Ivkovic was clearly nervous after the game as he awaited news from Spain, where the game started an hour after Efes's game. The Serb perhaps should have spoken to his compatriot, Zeljko Obradovic, after the game, with the Fenerbahce coach confidently predicting in his press conference that Laboral would lose.

For Obradovic, the hard work begins now, as he urged his players to forget everything - including the nine-game winning streak - they have done in the Top 16 ahead of the Top 8. Obradovic may know a thing or two about the EuroLeague knockout phases having won the tournament eight times with four teams.

"I want to congratulate my players on everything they have done up to now," said Obradovic. "Next week we will be starting something very important. The experience I have tells me we must forget that everything that has happened until now and to be ready for whoever comes and be ready for the first two game because it is never easy to play two games in 48 hours against the same team." On the night, Efes began slowly allowing Fenerbahce to dominate the first half, prompting Ivkovic to say after the game that "expected more from the players." Nemanja Bjelica hit a 3-pointer on the buzzer to give Fenerbahce a commanding 41-33 lead going into the half.

After half time, Efes kicked into gear and were able to level up the scores at 52-52 with three minutes left of the third quarter thanks to Dontaye Draper's 3-pointer. The two sides went neck-and-neck from there with Thomas Heurtel and Stephane Lasme proving devastating in the pick-and-roll.

As the game wound down, Andrew Goudelock and Bogdan Bogdanovic hit difficult runners to open up a late lead that Fenerbahce would never relinquish.

"The game tonight, we played seriously and I would really like to wish Efes good luck and I'm sure they will pass into the Top 8, so I hope we will be together in the Top 8 in the EuroLeague," said Obradovic. "Now we have a game in the Turkish League at six o clock on Saturday, because of this I tried to rotate the team to think about everything that is coming, this weekend and next week in the EuroLeague."