Alperen Sengun led Turkey to a sensational victory over the Czech Republic at Eurobasket 2025.
Turkey has begun its flight to Eurobasket 2025. Following Kristaps Porzingis’ 93-73 victory in Latvia, the team repeated a similar performance against the Czech Republic.
It was only Houston Rockets star Alperensengun who remained second in Group A, with only Nikola Djokic’s Serbia leading the team from the front in a 92-78 victory.
Sengun finished the night with 23 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists, shooting an efficient eight-nine times out of the field. The Rockets star narrowly missed clinching a triple double.
Sengun’s performance was the biggest reason behind his second consecutive victory in the Turkish tournament, but his triple double was even more memorable.
Sengun was taken out of the game and there was only three minutes left in the fourth quarter. It stopped Sengun from becoming the fifth player in Eurobasket history to record Triple Double.
“Yeah, my teammates said they had to do another assist. I wanted to go back, but it was a coach’s decision. There are more games so I have the opportunity to do that,” Senn told BasketNews.
The Rockets Center added: “He didn’t understand me, but it’s fine. There are a lot of games left, so I have the opportunity to do it.
Despite missing out on a massive milestone, Sentun remains positive as Turkey faces Portugal in the next game.
The current basketball team in Türkiye is coached by Elgin Ataman, head coach of the Greek basketball league Panatinaikos.
In an interview with BasketNews, Ataman explained his decision to pull out Sengun with just three minutes left in the game.
“Tomorrow night, we have another game so I let him rest. He didn’t want to go back to the court. No one told me about it.
“If anyone had been there, I might have called a timeout to set up something for him, but no one would let me know,” Ataman said.
Sengun missed creating history, but the Turkish coach is still optimistic as he believes the Rockets-led team will advance to the finals.
“The Eurobasket is long. We’ll be on the finals. I’m sure Alperen will score another triple double before that,” concluded Ataman.