12 Giant Men in the EuroBasket semifinals after 24 years: Alperen Şengün's triple-double

The Turkish National Men's Basketball Team advanced to the semi-finals of the 2025 European Basketball Championship (EuroBasket 2025) by eliminating Poland with a score of 91-77 in the quarter-finals.

12 Giant Men finished the group stage undefeated and advanced to the quarterfinals by defeating Sweden 85-79 in the round of 16.

Türkiye faced Poland in the quarter-final match at Arena Riga.

The first quarter of the match ended tied at 19-19, the fewest points Türkiye had scored in a quarter of the tournament.

The national team dominated the game both offensively and defensively in the second quarter and went into the break with a 46-32 lead.

Türkiye maintained its lead in a close third quarter, with the score 65-51 entering the final quarter.

Although Türkiye lost its rhythm in the attack in the last 10 minutes of the match, it won the match 91-77 and advanced to the semi-finals.

Alperen Şengün recorded a triple-double with 19 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists. A triple-double is a term used to describe scoring in double figures in three of five categories (points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks) in a game.

Şengün became the first Turkish player to record a triple-double at the EuroBasket and the fifth player in the tournament's history.

Türkiye's semifinal opponent will be the winner of the Greece-Lithuania match. This match will be played at 9:00 PM.

The last time the 12 Giant Men reached the semifinals was at EuroBasket 2001. That year, the national team lost to Yugoslavia in the final of the tournament held in Türkiye.

Türkiye faced Latvia, Czech Republic, Portugal, Estonia and Serbia in Group A, respectively.

The 12 Giant Men won all their matches, beating Latvia by 20 points, Czech Republic by 14 points, Portugal by 41 points, Estonia by 20 points and Serbia, which features NBA star Nikola Jokic, by five points.

At the start of the tournament, Serbia was ranked first in FIBA's power rankings , and sports commentators were predicting Serbia as one of the two heavy favorites for the tournament, along with Germany.

The national team, which finished Group A ahead of Serbia, was paired with Sweden, which finished fourth in Group B.

FIBA updated its list of tournament favorites after the group stage.

Türkiye, which was placed sixth in the previous list, was shown in second place after Germany in the new list published after the group matches.

In an evaluation of Turkey on FIBA's website, the play of Cedi Osman and Shane Larkin was emphasized and the following was said:

"We warned you about this team. We told you not to underestimate them because they had a record of three wins and two losses in friendly matches, but to be honest, we underestimated them too, ranking them only sixth in the previous power rankings.

Alperen Şengün has been a real joy to watch so far. The 'Big Three' of Şengün, Shane Larkin, and Cedi Osman are averaging nearly 50 points per game and shooting 58 percent from the field.