Turkey and Germany will compete for gold in the 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 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 with a score of 98-86.
Greece and Finland will face off on Sunday for the bronze medal.
Regardless of the outcome, this will be only Turkey’s second EuroBasket medal, having won silver when they hosted the tournament in 2001. Germany will secure their 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, both teams remain undefeated, with a record of 8-0 before Sunday’s matchup. The winner will be only the second undefeated EuroBasket champion in the last nine editions of the tournament, joining Slovenia in 2017.
Turkey opened their game with a 12-0 run that lasted only 2:19 of the second quarter, reaching a 45-24 lead at the end of that run. The score at halftime was 49-31, with the main difference being in 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 scored four three-pointers and was a perfect 10 of 10 from the free throw line. Franz Wagner added 22 points, including consecutive three-pointers to help Germany build their biggest lead, 49-30, in the second quarter.
Olivier Nkamhoua led Finland with 22 points. Lauri Markkanen scored 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.
