Turkey and Germany will compete for gold at the EuroBasket
RIGA, Latvia – Turkey 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 game will be played on Sunday in Riga. Turkey defeated Greece 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 the second EuroBasket medal for Turkey, who won silver when they hosted the tournament in 2001. Germany will win their fourth medal after obtaining gold in 1993, silver in 2005 and bronze in the 2022 EuroBasket.
Germany and Turkey played a friendly before the start of the EuroBasket at the DBB Supercup. Germany won that game 73-71 on August 15th.
In the EuroBasket, both teams arrive undefeated to Sunday’s match, with a record of 8-0. The winner will be only the second undefeated champion of the EuroBasket in the last nine editions of the tournament, joining Slovenia in 2017.
Turkey broke the game open with a 12-0 run that lasted only 2:19 in the second quarter, reaching 45-24 at the end of that run. The score at halftime 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 turned 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 six 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.
Schröder scored four three-pointers and made 10 of 10 free throws. Franz Wagner added 22 points, including consecutive three-pointers to help Germany build its biggest lead at 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.
