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“As in the last game against Nigeria, the defence was the determining factor, you know, we just really locked them down in the fourth quarter and defended really well,” Goorjian said.

“I just thought a real big one was our bigs tonight keeping running the lanes, getting some cheap baskets and keeping the ball alive with tipouts to threes, that was really big for us in the fourth quarter.”

Goorjian also said Baynes was being assessed after hurting himself when he fell over during the game, but he was hopeful the starting centre will be fit to face Germany.

The Boomers created plenty of scoring chances and were taking them with Mills shooting seven early points and Thybulle coming off the bench to make an impact at both ends.

But two fouls to Thybulle sent him back to the bench and Italy tied scores at 25-25 at quarter-time.

Mills found himself running into a wall of opponents in the second term and while his teammates looked to pick up the slack, Fontecchio and Mannion were finding too many avenues to the hoop taking a 45-44 lead into the main break.

The Boomers’ defence had to lift and they did.

A six-point lead didn’t last long for the Boomers but a drive and dish from Mills let Kay lay-up just before the buzzer for a 65-62 lead heading into the last.

The Italians tried to make a late comeback, cutting the lead, to three but Mills and Ingles made sure of the win with Mills’ runner ending the fightback.