Lithuania clinched the last berth in the quarter-finals of the Olympic men's basketball tournament with a flurry of three-pointers that helped them overtake Tunisia 76-63 today.

The victory lifted Lithuania, who trailed by as many as 14 points in the third quarter, to a 2-3 record and the fourth seed place in Group A, setting up a quarter-final showdown against Russia on Wednesday.

The gritty Tunisia team could have given themselves a chance to reach the quarters in their first Olympics with a victory but they finished the five-game preliminary round without a win.

Lithuania had given the powerful US team a scare in their previous game but struggled against the African champions before making a 9-1 run at the end of the third quarter to narrow their deficit to 54-50.

A three-pointer by Simas Jasaitis pulled them within one point and a three-point play by Darius Songaila at the end of a fast break put Lithuania ahead 63 seconds into the final quarter.

Back-to-back three-point daggers from Renaldas Seibutis placed Lithuania firmly in the lead during a 9-0 spurt that sent them on their way to the quarter-finals.

Sarunas Jasikevicius and Songaila shared scoring honours for the winners with 13 points each, while Amine Rzig paced Tunisia with 17 points.

In the opening game of the session, a three-point shot by Patrick Mills at the buzzer lifted Australia to an 82-80 victory over Russia.

The thrilling finish, however, had no bearing on the seedings as Russia (4-1) had already clinched the top seeding in Group B, while Australia (2-3) were set as fourth seeds.

Australia's Joe Ingles scored 20 points, and Sasha Kaun registered 18 for Russia as the game's top scorers.

The quarter-final match-ups were not completely decided and depended on later results, including the closing game of the day between the defending Olympic champion US team (4-0) and Argentina (3-1). 

- Reuters