Defeating Konyaspor 90-73 at the 26th week match of Turkish Basketball League, Anadolu Efes coach Dusan Ivkovic stated his thoughts at the post-game press conference:
“It was our last match in the league prior to our play-off journey in the Euroleague. We have been having ups and downs in the last two or three months. We have to display our real character from now on. We have qualified as one of the last eight teams in the Euroleague, and we need to play with our real identity on the court. Today, we held the match under control well in the first three quarters. There is no easy match in the Turkish League. Konya is a good team, and they have the highest three point shooting percentage in the Turkish League. We conceded 28 points in the final quarter. We performed bad on defense in this part of the game. We just did not play defense on a desired level. This is not a good indication for us. Yes, we have young and talented players but that does not mean we will not play good defense. We had less than 48 hours after the game against Fenerbahçe, but this was our request. This is because we will play very important matches against Real Madrid. We did want to start preparing for this series. Starting from tomorrow, we will start preparing for Real Madrid. I feel really sorry for Furkan’s injury in the last minute. He does not look so well for now, but injuries and misfortune are part of this sport...”
Among the prolific players of Efes, Birkan Batuk also stated his thoughts: “First of all, I need to express our joy for qualifying among the last eight teams in the Euroleague. Of course we would wish to advance to the play-off round by defeating Fenerbahçe, but qualifying among the last eight teams is a very important achievement by itself. The match against Konya was very crucial for us since we will play against Real Madrid. Konya is a strong opponent. We slipped up a little on defense in the final quarter of the match. However, we were able to increase the lead by playing well in the first three quarters, and we won the game. We will now play an important series against Real Madrid in the Euroleague. We will prepare as good as we can for these matches, and hopefully, we will get the best results we can...”
