{"id":158413,"date":"2025-09-09T21:33:52","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T01:33:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=158413"},"modified":"2025-09-09T21:33:52","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T01:33:52","slug":"sengun-eurobasket-triple-double-sets-up-giannis-antetokounmpo-semifinal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/09\/09\/sengun-eurobasket-triple-double-sets-up-giannis-antetokounmpo-semifinal\/","title":{"rendered":"Alperen Sengun’s EuroBasket Record Sets Up Superstar Semifinal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Houston Rockets center Alperen Sengun<\/a> is still giving it his all for his native Turkey at FIBA EuroBasket 2025. In fact, the NBA All-Star just punched their ticket to the semifinals. There, he’ll be up against an NBA star putting forth a Herculean effort of his own.<\/p>\n

Alperen Sengun’s EuroBasket Triple-Double Sets Up Giannis Antetokounmpo Semifinal<\/h2>\n

On Friday, Turkey will play Greece for a spot in the EuroBasket Finals.<\/p>\n

Sengun’s wizardry, which has carried his homeland’s national team this far, will be put to the test against Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a>. Just like when he suits up for the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks, Antetokounmpo is the Greek national team’s top player and perhaps their most ferocious competitor. He’s arguably even the best player in the world.<\/p>\n

Facing Lithuania in the quarterfinal round, Antetokounmpo just laid down 29 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 steals, and a block to drag his team<\/a> past Denver Nuggets center Jonas Valanciunas<\/a>‘s squad. Ever-efficient, he went 9-14 from the field and 11-16 from the free-throw line to do so. For the tournament, he’s second in scoring at 29.8 points per game, and fourth in rebounding at 9.0. He’s also been chipping in 3.6 assists and 1.4 steals.<\/p>\n

In short, Antetokounmpo has been at his world-beating best<\/a>. Greece has only picked up one loss during the group stage and it came in a game that he didn’t play<\/a>. But Turkey isn’t a team that will be flustered by playing even him. They’ve already beaten another contender for the best in the world<\/em> title earlier in the tournament. Sengun even\u00a0arguably outplayed Serbian mastermind Nikola Jokic<\/a> (who Valanciunas will now backup in Denver) in his best game of the event<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His best game until now, at least.<\/p>\n

Record-Breaking Masterpiece<\/h3>\n

In Turkey’s quarterfinal showdown against Poland, Sengun scored 19 points, pulled down 12 rebounds, and dished out 10 assists. He became only the fifth player to achieve a triple-double at EuroBasket<\/a>. Of those five, which surprisingly doesn’t include Jokic, Sengun was the youngest at only 23 years of age.<\/p>\n