The 32-year-old Efes point guard helped Turkiye remain undefeated
EuroBasket 2025: Larkin, Turkiye down Serbia
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In arguably the best game at EuroBasket 2025 so far, Turkiye claimed first place in Group A by downing Serbia 85-90 in Riga, Latvia. Both teams were undefeated before the game. Turkiye is set to play Sweden in the Round 16, in which Serbia will face Finland. Panathinaikos AKTOR head coach Ergin Ataman's team finished the game with 27 points and 11 assists, and Anadolu Efes Istanbul star point guard Shane Larkin had to do a lot with that.
Larkin had his best game in the tournament, finishing it with 23 points, 9 assists and no turnovers. He was the perfect counterpoint to Alperen Sengun, who barely missed a triple-double with 28 points, 13 rebounds and 8 assists. Cedi Osman of Panathinaikos had yet another solid game for Turkiye with 16 points and Ercan Osmani of Efes had 10, guarding Serbian superstar Nikola Jokic in the final minutes of the game.
Larkin found the way to be effective throughout the game. He fired in 4 of 5 three-pointers on his way to collect 12 points and 6 assists before the break. Far from being done, Larkin went to the foul line and found a couple of backdoor layups to round a truly all-around performance. Serbia tried to surprise Turkiye by placing Jokic and another center, Nikola Milutinov of Olympiacos, together on court, but Larkin always found the right rhythm and took good decisions on offense to lead Turkiye to an important victory.
Jokic led Serbia with 22 points. Marko Guduric of EA7 Emporio Armani Mialn added 12 and Filip Petrusev of Dubai Basketball had 11 for Serbia. Added to Bogdan Bogdanovic's absence, Vasilije Micic of Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv and Aleksa Avramovic of Dubai saw limited playing time due to respective physical problems. It went all down to the final minute with Serbia leading 89-90. Sengun and Larkin made free throws, Jokic missed a highly-contested shot from downtown, then Sengun sealed the win from the foul line.
For EuroLeague fans, it was the first opportunity to see Larkin go against Micic after being Efes teammates for five seasons. Larkin and Micic made history with Efes along with Coach Ataman, winning back-to-back EuroLeague titles in 2021 and 2022, as well as reaching another Championship Game in 2019. Only time will tell if Larkin and Micic cross paths again at EuroBasket 2025. If not, the next time they go against each other on a basketball court should be on October 3, when Efes faces Hapoel in Round 2 of the EuroLeague regular season.