Incredible: Lithuania topple the British in 9 seconds

Basketball World Cup qualification

Crazy end to the match

Great Britain and Lithuania provide the end of match of the year

As part of the qualifiers for the Basketball World Cup, Great Britain played host to Lithuania. On the face of it, it was an ordinary game... until the last twelve seconds turned irrational.

With an 87-80 lead, the British seemed to have wrapped things up. In 99.99% of cases, the team leading at that moment wins. But that was without counting on a monumental collapse orchestrated by one man: Ignas Sargiunas.

The Lithuanian began by hitting his first three-pointer: 87-83. Great Britain then converted a free throw (88-83) to give themselves some breathing space. But Sargiunas had not said his last word: he worked his way up the court, drew again from behind the arc and brought his side back to 88-86.

3.5 seconds left. British time-out. One goal: to keep the ball. And yet... when the ball was put back into play, they didn't even need half a second to lose it. Worse still, the ball went straight into the hands of Sargiunas, the last player to be given another chance.

The Lithuanian dribbled forward a few metres, unleashed a shot from around eight metres from the circle... and hit the target. 89-88 for Lithuania.

Trailing by seven points with twelve seconds to go, the Lithuanians had around a 0.001% chance of winning. Or, to put it another way, the British had every chance of winning. And yet they found a way to let it all slip away.

An absolutely memorable end to the match.