Ulker whitewashes Efes for title

From: www.turkishdailynews.com.tr
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Ulker's fourth national title comes in a 4-0 sweep that included, by Turkish League rules, a first victory awarded by virtue of the team's two regular season wins against Efes

A difficult season ended in glory for Ulker Istanbul on Wednesday as it completed the first Turkish League finals sweep of the century with a 76-62 victory over archrival Efes Pilsen.

Ulker's fourth national title came in a 4-0 sweep that included, by Turkish League rules, a first victory awarded by virtue of the team's two regular season wins against Efes. With that advantage, Ulker's confidence built throughout the finals until it won the last game by the widest margin, 14 points, against the three-time defending champs from Efes.

Ibrahim Kutluay again led the winners with 20 points and won his first Turkish League crown ever. Ira Clark followed with 15 and Jeff Trepagnier 12. Mirsad Turkcan pulled nine rebounds as Ulker won the war of the boards 34-20 and dished 20 assists, almost double those of Efes, whose leading scorer was Cenk Akyol with 19 points.

The title is Ulker's fourth overall, having won its last five years ago, and three previous ones between 1994 and 2001. Ulker had won the Turkish President's Cup to start the season but faltered in the Euroleague until head coach Ergin Ataman resigned in midseason.

Ulker led early and often but had to settle for a 20-21 score after one quarter in which Kutluay already had nine points. Ulker took its first double-digit advantage midway through the second quarter, at 25-35, and continued leading 30-39 at the half behind 11 points from Kutluay and seven from Vrbica Stefanov.

Rebounds were already a theme by then as Ulker had pulled 13 as compared to seven for Efes. Ulker nursed its lead after halftime until racing ahead by 15 points, 34-49, as Clark and Trepagnier started contributing with alley-oops and dunks. Their scoring extended Ulker's run to 5-14 and its lead to 19 points, 37-56, late in the third quarter.

Ulker was able to keep a 44-61 margin after 30 minutes and maintain it early in the fourth quarter. Efes was unable to dent an advantage that held at 13 points with five minutes remaining and rose again to 55-72, indicating that Turkey's first sweep in years was, indeed, true.

Chairman Dogan happy:

Ülkerspor Chairman Ali Dogan congratulated his team: “This was a great year for us. First we won the Presidential Cup and now we are league champions. It wasn't all easy, though; the competition with Efes was intense throughout the season.”

Coach Özyer praises players:

Ulker head coach Murat Özyer, who recently took over from Ergin Ataman, downplayed his role in the triumph: “The championship win belongs to the players and former coach Ataman, who had a big hand in our success. The players were focused on winning and persevered to reach their goal. I also want to thank the Ülker family and employees who supported us all along the way.

“It wasn't all smooth sailing, though. We negotiated the series by taking one game at a time. We played some tough games against Efes Pilsen and there were some very close calls, but we managed to beat them twice this season, first the Presidential Cup and now the league. Our intense concentration during the season paid off. We managed to beat a team that was undefeated four years running.”

Kutluay and unborn child:

Ülker captain and high scorer Kutluay dedicated the Cup win to his unborn child and said: “It's a great feeling to win. Our hard work during last year paid off. I hope we can repeat this next season.”

HH] Kerem Tunçeri named star player of the year:

Besiktas Cola Turka playmaker Kerem Tunçeri was voted star player of the year in an online poll run by the Basketball Federation. The poll featured 30 MVP candidates, based on performance stats in the 2005-06 season. Tunçeri clinched 20 percent of the votes to claim the top spot. Galatasaray Cafe Crown's Malik Dixon won second place with 14 percent, while Ülkerspor playmaker Ibrahim Kutluay came in third with 13 percent of the online tally.