Fenerbahçe punched its ticket to the EuroLeague Final Four the hardest way possible - through overtime, on the road in Kaunas, against a Žalgiris that wasn't going home easily. 94-90 in game five, the series 3-1 to the Turkish champions, and a place at the most charactered tournament in European basketball.

The match was everything Balkans love about the EuroLeague - lead changes, suspense down to the last seconds, and a heavy tension between two clubs fighting for more than just one spot in the semi-final. In regulation it looked like Žalgiris would hold on, but Fener in the end found enough in the last five minutes of overtime to close it.

The heroes of the winning side had names and numbers. Talen Horton-Tucker finished with 21 points and 6 rebounds, shooting 8/14 from the floor. Hem Birch was dominant in the paint - 21 points and 13 rebounds, a double-double at the moment the series was demanding a centre. Wade Baldwin IV added another 14 points to close it out.

Žalgiris didn't fold easily. Sylvain Francisco finished with 23 points and 11 assists - numbers that on a normal night would be enough. Ažuolas Tubelis 16 points, Edgaras Ulanovas 15. The Lithuanian team didn't lose because it played badly, it lost because Fener played one point better at the moment it mattered.

For Fener this is confirmation that the investment in Turkish basketball isn't a waste. For the EuroLeague, the Final Four gets another team with a noisy fan base that knows what a final is. The question now is simple - who does Fener get in the semis, and will the classic from a decade ago repeat itself.