Green Free-Throw Wins It For Israel

Turning Point: Andrea Bargnani missed a potential game-winning lay-up and then fouled Yaniv Green of Israel with less than a second remaining. Green missed the first free-throw but made the second for a 96-95 win.

Game Hero: In regulation, Israel's Guy Pnini had 19 points, drilling two of three shots from long range and all seven of his free-throws, including two with 8.1 seconds remaining for an 84-81 lead. In overtime, his three-ball with 1:37 to play made it 93-89 in favor of Israel.

Stats Don't Lie: Israel scored just five points in the fourth quarter - all from the free-throw line in the last 16 seconds - to allow Italy to come back.

Yaniv Green made the second of two free-throws with less than a second remaining in overtime to give Israel a 96-95 victory over Italy in Siauliai.

In a battle of 1-3 teams that had no chance of progressing from Group B, Italy's Andrea Bargnani nearly capped a terrific performance with an offensive rebound and put-back at the end of regulation but he missed the shot.

After teammate Danilo Gallinari failed to tap the ball in, Green grabbed the rebound but as time was about to expire, Bargnani fouled him to give Israel a chance to seal victory.

After missing the first free-throw, a scoreboard malfunction caused a short delay.

But when Green finally took the second free-throw, he drilled it.

Italy inbounded the ball to Gallinari and his three-quarters length shot had a chance of going in.

The ball hit off the backboard and the rim but stayed out.

"Those are the moments you want to be in," Green said.

"I'm just glad I was able to make the shot. It's an important win for Israel."

Arik Shivek's side played well for the first three quarters and had a 79-60 lead over Italy going into the fourth period.

But the Italians tightened up defensively and held the Israelis without a basket for the entire quarter.

Israel didn't score in the last frame until Gal Mekel made the second of two free-throws with 16 seconds to play for an 80-78 lead.

Italy called a timeout but when Gallinari attempted to inbound the ball, he failed to do so in time and the ball went back to Israel.

The Azzurri put Afik Nissim on the line and he sank both free-throws for an 82-78 advantage just 14 seconds from the end, yet Italy still weren't done.

Gallinari, clearly angry with his turnover, made amends by quickly launching and making a three-pointer to reduce the deficit to one.

After Guy Pnini, who had a team-high 22 points, sank two free-throws with eight seconds to play, Italy again looked for a three-pointer and got it from Bargnani.

The last sequence of the game with Green's game-winning free-throw spoiled an otherwise solid afternoon for Bargnani, who had game highs points with 26 and rebounds with 11.

In 17 minutes, Green had seven points and three rebounds.

Also for Israel, David Blu added 17 points, Lior Eliyahu 16 and both Yotam Halperin and Elishay Kadir 10.

Gallinari scored 19 points for Italy, Stefano Mancinelli 16 and Daniel Hackett 15.