1978 Fiba world championship

Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union were among the elite in international basketball before the FIBA Basketball World Cup tipped off in 1978 in the Philippines.

he Final proved to be a tightrope act. Yugoslavia briefly opened an 11-point lead 31-20 in the first half but Soviet Union charged back and knotted the game 39-39 and it was 41-41 at halftime. Yugoslavia were up 49-45 when the Soviets mounted an 8-0 spurt to go ahead for the first time and lead 53-49.

Yugoslavia tied the game 59-59 and neither team pulled away by more than 4 points the rest of regulation with Anatolij Myshkin scoring with 27 seconds left to make it 73-73 and force overtime.

Soviet star center Vladimir Tkachenko fouled out on the tipoff to start the extra session. With the score 77-77, Yugoslavia finally opened up some breathing room with five straight points - Dalipagic's free throw for an 82-77 lead with 78 seconds to play. That ended up being the winning point as Sergej Belov could only make it 82-81 with his score with 6 seconds on the clock. Yugoslavia would kill the clock and celebrate once again.