MADRID (FIBA Basketball World Cup) - Nikola Kalinic came into the Round of 16 game against Greece averaging 4.4 points per game for Serbia in the group stage.

The 22-year-old forward nearly doubled that in the first six minutes of Sunday's game and his performance gave Serbia a big boost in their 90-72 win to reach the Quarter-Finals of the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

Kalinic threw down two monster dunk and on both occasions drew fouls to complete three-point plays. He had all 12 of his points in the first half, including eight early on to give Serbia a 15-10 lead with 4:24 left in the first quarter.

Those dunks over some good guys. (Giannis) Bourousis has been in the Euroleague for more than 10 years. - Kalinic

His first dunk came over Greek big man Giannis Bourousis after two minutes of action.

And then Kalinic dunked in the face of Greek star Kostas Papanikolaou at the end of the first half.

"Yeah, I can do that," said Kalinic, whose previous best scoring outburst was 11 points against Egypt on the first day of the tournament.

His teammate Bogdan Bogdanovic was more animated when talking about the two highlight reel facials.

"Did you see the dunks? Those are NBA dunks," said the Serbian star.

"He gave us a big boost in the first half and he kept us strong on defense with a lot of pressure on their guards. He can play a good role."

Starting playmaker Milos Teodosic agreed.

"He had a big part in this game tonight. We needed the points from one of not main guys and he helped our game tonight defensively," he said.

Kalinic, who also had four rebounds, two assists and one steal in 21 minutes, downplayed the excitement about his good performance.

"(Greece) were probably more concentrated on other players, so I got some space and made my shots," he offered.

The Crvena Zvezda forward said the team is just playing good defense.

"Our most important thing, like we have said 100 times in this whole process, is defense. We must play tough defense with full court pressure and try to play fast. We are young. We want to play fast we want to play young," he said.

Kalinic may not play such a big offensive role in the Quarter-Final against the winners of the last Round of 16 game between Argentina and Brazil. But he was there for the team this time around.

FIBA