Giannis Antetokounmpo’s dreams of leading Greece to glory at EuroBasket 2025 were squashed as Turkey came away with a dominant 94-68 win in their semifinal clash. Antetokounmpo was far from his best on the night, and Alperen Sengun pointed out a weakness in his game when asked about their game plan postgame.
“We just put Ercan [Osmani] on him and we help as much as we can,” Sengun said. “And Ercan did a great job today. Of course, Giannis is one of the best players in the world, and we just tried to help Ercan, and I think we did [a] good job.
“He’s not a great passer,” Sengun added. “He’s an amazing player, but he’s not a great passer. So, we’re just trying to help and jump, close the paint.”
Antetokounmpo has averaged 6.5 assists per game in each of his last two seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks, but he isn’t exactly a great floor general. Most of his assists are the result of kickouts, not him slicing and dicing the defense.
So, with that in mind, Turkey put together a game plan, and it worked to perfection. Antetokounmpo only had 12 points (6-13 FG), 12 rebounds, five assists, and two blocks against Turkey. The 30-year-old had five turnovers on the night and had a team-worst plus-minus of -30.
Antetokounmpo came into this semifinal clash with impressive averages of 29.8 points, 9.0 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.4 steals, and 0.4 blocks per game at EuroBasket 2025. Teams just had no answer for the two-time MVP.
Israel’s head coach, Ariel Beit-Halahmy, had joked before their round of 16 clash against Greece that you need an M-16 assault rifle to stop Antetokounmpo. Prior to that, Italy’s former head coach, Gianmarco Pozzecco, had hilariously stated that a friend of his is a sniper when asked about stopping the Bucks superstar.
Well, the Turks showed you can limit Antetokounmpo’s impact without having to resort to extreme measures. This was a terrific team effort, and Sengun was keen to point out that this blowout was down to their exceptional play, as opposed to Greece’s struggles.
“It wasn’t a bad performance from [Greece],” Sengun stated, “We did this. They’re a great team, they’ve been playing really well. We just went over there and fight. We played more aggressive. We play harder tonight than them. We made the shots. We were just better tonight.”
Sengun actually didn’t have his greatest night offensively against Greece. The Houston Rockets star finished with 15 points (5-13 FG), 12 rebounds, six assists, two steals, and one block.
You might have thought before the game that Turkey would be in trouble if Sengun struggles offensively, but that didn’t end up being the case. Ercan Osmani, who defended Antetokounmpo so well, managed to pick up the slack.
Osmani had 28 points (11-15 FG), six rebounds, two assists, two steals, and one block against Greece. He was certainly the star of the show.
The Turks have now made it to the final for the first time since 2001. They lost to Yugoslavia on home soil back then and now find Germany standing between them and the gold.
