Italy came close to pulling off one of the biggest upsets in women’s FIBA World Cup history.

The Italians, making their first appearance in the tournament since 1994, gave the U.S. all it could handle before falling 55-52 on Sunday. It was the fewest points the Americans had scored in a World Cup win since they beat Australia 42-38 in 1967.

Italy (1-1) almost handed the Americans their first loss in the tournament since 2006 and first preliminary round defeat since 1983. Instead they came up just a few plays short.

“I feel a little bitter of course but they were the better team and they made better plays at the end so they deserve to win,” Italy point guard Mariella Santucci said. “I feel like the way we play we learn so much about ourselves that we can compete against everybody. To play like that with the USA is special, but it makes us think that we are a special team and we can do something special.”

Italy led 50-48 in the fourth quarter and the crowd of 9,232 that was made up of predominantly fans of the European nation was whipped into a frenzy. Then the U.S. went on a 7-0 run to take a 55-50 advantage.

The Italians got within three and star forward Cecilia Zandalasini had a chance to tie it at the buzzer, but her 3-pointer was off. She apologized after the game for being emotional toward an official for not calling a foul on the final possession.

“I would like to apologize for how I reacted in the end,” Zandalasini said. “It was a lot of emotions today, but I should have kept them inside of me a little better.”

The Italians don’t have much time to analyze what went wrong in the final few minutes against the U.S. with a key game against China on Monday.

“We have another very important game tomorrow. So now we’ve shown what we’re capable of,” Zandalasini said. “But we want to keep going and not just stop here and just lose our head on this game. It’s still a very, very long tournament.”

Zandalasini scored 14 points to lead Italy, which was one of the rare teams to actually have a .500 or better record against the U.S., going 1-1 before Sunday.

“I think we showed that tonight we deserved a spot in this tournament on this big stage,” Zandalasini said. “I’m so proud of my team. and I think, we have a great coach that believes in us and we really play our hearts out.”

China’s comeback

China needed overtime to beat the Czech Republic.

Han Xu scored 22 points and drew China level at 53-53 in the final quarter after her team had trailed for most of the game.

Eliška Joklová put the Czechs 64-59 up with 27 seconds left only for Luo Xinyu to respond with a 3-pointer and Yang Shuyu to level at 64-64 with 3 seconds to go – after Joklová missed two free throws. There was still time for Joklová to miss another chance to clinch the win.

Yang also completed the scoring in overtime for China, which failed to get the most from 7-foot-3 Zhang Ziyu. The 19-year-old sensation could only score three points in her second game after 13 on her World Cup debut against the United States on Friday.

“She has very great talent and we need to fix how we play together,” Yang said of the teenager’s performance. “Today everybody could see that we did not play so well with her, and we have to fix it.”

Belgium hopes no more fire alarms

Emma Meesseman completed the scoring as European champion Belgium booked its place in the final phase with a comfortable 76-64 win over Puerto Rico, its second victory in Group C.

Imani McGee-Stafford finished with 25 points for Puerto Rico, which lost against Belgium for the third time at a World Cup.

Maxuella Lisowa Mbaka was top scorer for the Belgians with 16 points, followed by Julie Vanloo with 15. Meesseman finished with 6.

Both teams face a quick turnaround with little rest as they play the first games Monday at 11:30 a.m. local time.

Belgium faces Australia (2-0) in a showdown to decide which team progresses directly to the quarterfinals as group winner, and Puerto Rico (0-2) will be playing for survival against Turkey (0-2).

“Nothing we can do about it,” Lisowa Mbaka said of the schedule. “I’m not going to worry about something I can’t control. I don’t think that’s the way you should think about the game or life in general.”

Ezi does it for Australia

Ezi Magbegor scored 21 points as Australia reached the final phase with a physical 87-71 win over Turkey earlier Sunday.

Turkey, led by Sevgi Uzun with 24 points, was down 8-0 at the start but fought back after a timeout to lead 15-14. That was brief, however, as the Opals rallied to end the first quarter 21-15 up and did not relinquish the lead for the rest of the game.

The Australian team features seven World Cup debutants.