Turkey and Germany will compete for gold at EuroBasket
RIGA, Latvia – Turkey’s national team has qualified for the EuroBasket final for the first time in 24 years, and will face Germany, the current world champion, for the gold medal.
The title match will be played on Sunday in Riga. Turkey defeated Greece with a score of 94-68 on Friday in the second semi-final, preceded by Germany’s victory over Finland by 98-86.
Greece and Finland will compete for the bronze medal on Sunday.
Regardless of the outcome, it will be the second medal in the EuroBasket for Turkey, who won silver when they hosted the tournament in 2001. Germany will achieve its fourth medal after winning gold in 1993, silver in 2005, and bronze in the most recent EuroBasket, in 2022.
Germany and Turkey played a friendly before this EuroBasket started in the DBB Supercup. Germany won that game 73-71 on August 15th.
In the EuroBasket, neither team has lost, and both arrive at Sunday’s match with an 8-0 record. The winner will be only the second undefeated EuroBasket champion in the last nine editions of the tournament, joining Slovenia in 2017.
Turkey opened the game with a 12-0 run that lasted only 2:19 in the second quarter, reaching a 45-24 lead when that run ended. The halftime score was 49-31, with the main difference being turnovers. Greece had 12 in the first 20 minutes, which turned into 17 points for Turkey; Turkey only had two turnovers in the first half, which translated into two points for Greece.
Ercan Osmani scored 28 points and Cedi Osman added 17 to help Turkey advance to the final.
Alperen Sengun finished with 15 points, 12 rebounds, and 6 assists, while Shane Larkin ended with 14 points and five assists for Turkey.
Kostas Sloukas led Greece with 15 points. Giannis Antetokounmpo finished with 12 points and 12 rebounds in 30 minutes.
Dennis Schroder scored 26 points and added 12 assists to help Germany beat Finland.
Schroder made four three-pointers and hit 10 of 10 free throws. Franz Wagner added 22 points, including consecutive three-pointers to help Germany build its biggest lead of 49-30 in the second quarter.
Olivier Nkamhoua led Finland with 22 points. Lauri Markkanen had 16 points on 6-of-17 shooting for Finland, which was within six points at the end of the third quarter but saw Germany pull away.
