Dimos Dikoudis certainly hit Team USA with some daggers on Friday as Greece defeated the Americans 101-95 to reach the final of the FIBA World Championship.

The power forward, who did not even play in Greece's 73-56 win over France, was called on by coach Panagiotis Yannakis in the third quarter against Team USA and, in limited action, scored eight points and pulled down four rebounds.

Dikoudis said: "It's been a big day for us.

"We came here as as the European champions, and we knew it would be a hard competition.
"We believed in ourselves and played good basketball. It's a big win for us.

"The way we played, I was confident on our team that we can get back on the game and get a lead of our own."

Greece took a 45-41 lead to the changing rooms at half-time and stayed in front for the remainder of the game.

Greece now face Spain in an all-European battle for the gold medal.

National-team boss Panagiotis Yannakis said: "We have built a great team together and I think the character which we are going to have will help us to play a great game on Sunday."