CORDOBA (Rio 2016 Olympic Games) - Australia climbed out of an early hole and then went on a key run in the fourth quarter en route to an 84-83 win over hosts Argentina in a warm-up game for the Olympics on Tuesday.

Andrej Lemanis's side trailed by 16 points at the end of the first quarter but fought back and then reeled off 13 unanswered points early in the fourth quarter.

With the contest knotted at 79-79 inside the final minute, Ryan Broekhoff drilled a three-pointer and then Matthew Dellavedova, after a Nicolas Laprovittola jumper cut the deficit to one, scored with a runner from the free-throw line. Laprovittola again closed the gap to one point with a jumper but Australia held on for the victory.

Pat Mills, who had 13 points but shot just 3-of-12 from behind the arc, said: "This was a great opportunity to play in Argentina, to witness the crowd and atmosphere and to play against one of my good friends [Argentina's Manu Ginobili]."

Mills and Ginobili, who had 22 points, both play for the San Antonio Spurs.

"This is a learning experience for us," Ginobili said. "It's a shame not to have won because we were in a great situation with the important advantage that we jumped out to. We ran out of juice in some stretches of the second half, we were slow in defensive rotations and these teams make you pay."

Argentina's Luis Scola scored a game-high 27 points in defeat.

Australia are hoping to get to the podium of an Olympics for the first time and the win over Argentina in South America suggests they have got a real shot to do so. The team won despite playing without Joe Ingles and Andrew Bogut. The Boomers have been enjoying themselves on and off the court and the result bodes well for the rest of the summer.

Australia will play in Group A at the Olympics while Argentina will compete in Group B.

FIBA