Nico Mannion did everything he could to will Italy past Australia in the second game of group play at the Tokyo Olympics, but the Italians fell short in an 86-83 loss on Wednesday.
The current Golden State Warrior and former Arizona guard had 21 points, a game-high seven assists, three rebounds and only one turnover in 24 minutes.
Mannion was an efficient 9 for 15 from the field and sank some key baskets late. He drained a pull-up along the baseline to cut Australia’s lead to 82-79 with 23 seconds left, then drove the length of the court for back-to-back layups to cut the deficit to 86-83 with 4.