EuroBasket, Giannis Antetokounmpo not enough for Greece: Turkey in final

Turkey will be the one to face Germany in the final of EuroBasket 2025. Relying on one of the NBA’s brightest stars like Giannis Antetokounmpo was not enough for Greece to get the better of their opponents in the second semifinal of the European basketball championships, which they eventually lost by an all too eloquent 94-68 score.

Turkey simply imposed a pace on the Hellenic opponents that was never sustainable, right from the first quarter. Even the numbers of the most expected protagonists testify to the one-way or almost one-way performance of the challenge: Ercan Osmani in fact put up an impressive 28 points, with a score of 6/8 on 3-point shots, double-double for Alperen Sengun (15+12). Definitely more opaque l’highly anticipated Antetokounmpo, stopped at 12 points and well marked for the entire game.

The first double-digit lead for Turkey materialized as early as the first quarter, at the score of 22-10. The fraction then closed on 26-16, and with Osmani a major player Ataman’s team was also able to react to a difficult start in the second period. Here the gap reached as high as 21 points, eventually reaching 49-31 at the end of the first twenty minutes of play.

The second half, if possible, saw an even more dominant Turkey than the first. Antetokounmpo completely nullified, Greece’s game proved to be unrecoverable until the very heavy deficit with which it ended. For the Anatolians, this is the second final at the European Basketball Championships since 2001, which will see them pitted against Germany on Sunday night: it will be played at 8 p.m. Italian time. At 4 p.m. is the final for third place, with the Hellenes pitted against Finland.