European champion Greece has upset the United States to advance to the finals of the World Basketball Championships in Saitama, Japan.
The Greek team edged the Americans 101-95 Friday in a semifinal match-up.
The U.S. men's national basketball team has not won a major international title in six years, despite being comprised of some of the top players in the National Basketball Association.
Greece will face the winner of Friday's other semi-final between Olympic champion Argentina and Spain in Sunday's championship game.
The United States will take on the loser of the Spain-Argentina contest in the bronze medal game Saturday.
Thursday, France edged Germany, 75-73, thanks to a buzzer-beating basket by Mickael Gelabale. Joseph Gomis hit a three-point basket for France with 20 seconds left to tie the game. Gelabale gave France the win on a layup with one-point-eight seconds left. Germany had a chance to win the game with less than one second left, but Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki stepped on the out-of-bounds line and turned the ball over.
In Thursday's other game, Turkey’s Ermal Kurtoglu scored 10 of his 24 points in overtime as Turkey rallied to beat Lithuania, 95-84. A magnitude 4.8 earthquake at the Tokyo Super Arena interrupted the game at halftime. The venue was not damaged and there was little reaction from the fans.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
