Turkey ran roughshod over Greece in the Eurobasket semi-finals, convincingly beating the Greek national team 94-68 thanks to strong performances from players such as Ercan Osmani and Alperen Şengün and making history by securing a place in the final for the first time in 24 years, where they will face Germany.
The Turks clearly dominated the match and were ahead on the scoreboard throughout. Ercan Osmani was the star of the night: the 27-year-old Anadolu Efes power forward was unstoppable, hitting back-to-back three-pointers and scoring 14 of Türkiye’s first 22 points in just eight minutes, and 28 points for the entire game (including 6 of 8 three-pointers).
Osmani kept Giannis Antetokounmpo – who was only able to score 12 points for Greece – at bay in defence; the latter was the most outstanding player of the Greek team along with Kostas Sloukas, who scored 15 points in the whole game. Cedi Osman with 17 points and Alperen Şengün, who scored 15 (as well as 12 rebounds and 6 assists) were the other two big players for the Turkish team.
From the opening minutes it was clear that the Ottomans were dominant on the court and that the 12 Dev Adam (‘12 Giants’, as the national basketball team is known in Turkish) were going to crush Greece. The half-time score was already 49-31 in Turkey’s favour, and during the third quarter the Greeks were unable to reduce the score deficit to less than 19 points. The key to the Turkish victory was their few turnovers in contrast to the Greek team, who had 12 turnovers in the first half alone which turned into 17 points for the Turks.
With this result, Turkey made history by reaching a European basketball final for the first time in almost a quarter of a century, where they will be looking to win the gold. They will face none other than reigning world champions Germany, who beat Finland 98-86 in the other Eurobasket semi-final.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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