Basketball-Fenerbahce, Laboral reach Final Four as Barca close in

By Zoran Milosavljevic BELGRADE, April 19 (Reuters) - Fenerbahce Istanbul and Laboral Kutxa Vitoria reached the Euroleague Final Four after completing 3-0 wins in their best-of-five quarter-finals while Barcelona closed in after beating Lokomotiv Krasnodar on Tuesday. Fenerbahce brushed aside holders Real Madrid 75-63 and Laboral sank the competition's six-time winners Panathinaikos 84-75 to join CSKA Moscow, who rounded off their 3-0 sweep of Red Star Belgrade on Monday, in the last four. Fenerbahce will play Laboral for a berth in the final in Berlin while Barcelona edged towards a clash with CSKA in the other semi after an 82-70 home win over Lokomotiv gave them a 2-1 lead over the Russian side. Aiming to become the first Turkish team to win Europe's premier club competition, Fenerbahce enjoyed a third emphatic win over Real despite missing their injured Czech centre Jan Vesely throughout the series. A 17-2 run in the third quarter swung a physical contest Fenerbahce's way as the visitors silenced Real's vociferous home fans with an effervescent second-half performance. The outcome gave Fenerbahce revenge for last year's semi-final defeat by Real but their Serbian guard Bogdan Bogdanovic praised the ousted champions and their supporters. "I don't like to think of it as revenge because it was a superb contest and tonight's game was played in a great atmosphere," said Bogdanovic, who scored all his 17 points in the second half. "The coach told us to forget about having three chances to reach the Final Four against a team of Real's quality despite being 2-0 up, and we played accordingly." Bogdanovic's compatriot Zeljko Obradovic, the Euroleague's most successful coach having claimed eight titles with four different clubs, will aim for his first with Fenerbahce after the club's owners invested heavily over several years. Laboral romped into the Final Four with a flawless display against Greek giants Panathinaikos. The Basque outfit will also be gunning for their maiden title after Darius Adams, Mike James and Davis Bertans contributed a total of 57 points in Athens. Twice former winners Barcelona overcame an early deficit as their shooting guard Alex Abrines shone with a game-high 25 points, netting six three-pointers from 10 attempts. Barcelona will be at home to Lokomotiv again in Game 4 on Thursday. Should the visitors draw level, the series will move to Russia for the tie-breaker on April 26. (Editing by Toby Davis)