Turkey routs Greece to set up EuroBasket final vs. Germany

RIGA, Latvia (AP) — Turkey is headed to the EuroBasket final for the first time in 24 years, set to face World Cup champion Germany for the gold medal.

The title game is Sunday in Riga. Turkey beat Greece 94-68 on Friday in the second semifinal, preceded by Germany’s 98-86 win over Finland.

Greece and Finland play Sunday for bronze.

Regardless of outcome, it’ll be just the second EuroBasket medal for Turkey; it won silver when it played host to the tournament in 2001. Germany will medal for the fourth time after winning gold in 1993, silver in 2005 and bronze in the most recent EuroBasket before now in 2022.

Germany and Turkey played a friendly before this EuroBasket started at the DBB Supercup. Germany won that game 73-71 on Aug. 15.

And at EuroBasket, neither team has lost. Both will bring 8-0 records into Sunday’s matchup. The winner will be just the second undefeated EuroBasket champion in the last nine instances of the tournament, joining Slovenia in 2017.

Turkey 94, Greece 68

Ercan Osmani scored 28 points, Cedi Osman added 17 and Turkey rolled into the title game.

Alperen Sengun finished with 15 points, 12 rebounds and six assists, while Shane Larkin finished with 14 points and five assists for Turkey.

Turkey blew the game open with a 12-0 run that took only 2:19 of the second quarter, going up 45-24 when that spurt ended. It was 49-31 at the half, with the primary difference being turnovers. Greece had 12 in the first 20 minutes that turned into 17 Turkey points; Turkey had only two giveaways in the first half, which became two Greece points.

Kostas Sloukas led Greece with 15 points. Giannis Antetokounmpo was held to 12 points in 30 minutes; he also grabbed 12 rebounds for Greece.

Germany 98, Finland 86

Dennis Schröder scored 26 points and added 12 assists to help Germany beat Finland and earn its spot in the final.

Schröder made four 3-pointers and went a perfect 10-of-10 from the free throw line. Franz Wagner added 22 points, including back-to-back 3-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 late in the third quarter but watched Germany pull away.

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