USA Upset By Greece
USA Upset By Greece
SAITAMA, Japan, Sept. 1 -- After jumping out to a six-point first-quarter lead, USA Basketball seemed headed toward the gold medal game. But Greece had other ideas, as it dominated the middle two quarters to seize control of Friday's 101-95 upset victory at the FIBA World Championship.
Greece outscored Team USA by 10 in the second quarter and eight in the third and led by as many as 14.
Greece, which was 35-of-56 from the field, including nine 3-pointers, withstood a furious fourth-quarter rally from Team USA.
LeBron James' dunk with 15.3 seconds left in the game trimmed the deficit to four at 99-95, but it would be the last points scored for Team USA, which suffered its first loss of the tournament.
Carmelo Anthony scored a game-high 27 points, Dwyane Wade had 19 and James scored 17 for USA Basketball, which led by as many as 12 points in the second quarter.
Vasileios Spanoulis fired in 22 points and Konstantinos Tsartsaris handed out 12 assists for Greece.
Greece, which is now 8-0 at the World Championship, will play the Argentina-Spain winner in the finals on Sunday at 6:30 a.m. ET on ESPN2, while Team USA will play the Argentina-Spain loser in the third-place game on Saturday.
