By Semih Tuna/ info@eurohoops.net
RIGA – With Turkiye up 1-0 and shifting focus to facing Czechia on Friday, Shane Larkin talked to Eurohoops about a winning display over host Latvia in the opener of EuroBasket 2025.
“It always feels good to start a tournament that way, but at the end of the day, there’s a lot of games left to play, a lot of good competition, a lot of great teams, so we have to stay focused, stay poised. Try to continue to put out those efforts,” he pointed out after team practice on Thursday.
The 32-year-old guard recorded 15 points, six rebounds, three assists, and one steal, lasting 29 minutes on Wednesday.
“I’ve had some other games that have been pretty decent, but I think just because it’s EuroBasket, it’s the first game of the tournament against the home team in the host arena with their home fans, I would say probably collectively, especially getting the win, I would say that’s probably the best game that I’ve enjoyed on the national team,” he told Eurohoops.
“There’s certain people that are going to doubt what we’re able to do, and I think Cedi [Osman] being the captain of this team, he took response to that and in those moments when things got a little heated, he wanted to respond and I think when you’re one of the leaders of the team does that, it helps raise everybody,” he referred to a heated moment in the third quarter against Latvia, “I just wanted to continue to push that effort and continue to push us forward and I think we did a great job of making some key plays in those moments, pushing the game up to 17-18 points and then everybody else contributed.”
Without missing a shot, experienced guard Kenan Sipahi went for 19 points with 6/6 field goals, including five three-pointers.
“We asked where he went because Steph Curry showed up on our team,” he painted the picture on humorous team talks with Sipahi after his brilliant showing, “That was a great effort from him. He’s been battling all pre-camp, and he’s putting the work in, working a lot on the shooting, and last night showed that he’s turned himself into a very reliable player in that position, shooting that shot where maybe a couple of years ago people would have doubted it. So, hopefully he can continue to shoot the ball like that, and if he does, I think that just makes us that much more dangerous.”
The major highlight of the contest was Sehmus Hazer dunking on Kristaps Porzingis in the first half.
“I was like, ‘What just happened?’ I don’t think I reacted until like five seconds later,” described Larkin, “He didn’t go like over the top. He went through, so it’s like he went with force and power and it just shows what kind of player he is and the ability he has and I think that was one of the key instances in the game that pushed us forward and gave us momentum and got everybody excited and I think a bunch of those kind of plays kind of just gave us more and more energy, but that was definitely one of the ones early in the game that gave us the energy and momentum to keep going.”
Photo Credit: FIBA