Russia won its first Olympic basketball medal Sunday after a thrilling final decided in the last minute.

Alexey Shved nailed a three to give Russia a 79-77 edge with 37 seconds left and Andres Nocioni's three at the other end then rimmed out.

Vitaliy Fridzon grabbed the rebound but immediately lost the ball to Manu Ginobili.

Prigioni was primed to launch another attack but was controversially robbed by Shved, and Fridzon scored an easy lay-up to make it a four-point game with five seconds left.

"It was that last three-point shot that did it," Denver Nuggets and Russia centre Timofey Mozgov said.

"Also our defense was our main strength. Argentina were hitting so many three-point shots, so we responded and did the same."

Russia beat 2004 Olympic champions Argentina 81-77, with Minnesota Timberwolves teammates Alexey Shved and Andrei Kirilenko scoring 25 and 20 points, as well as seven assists for Shved and eight rebounds for Kirilenko.

Argentina led 20-19 at the end of the first quarter, but the match changed when Russia went on a 12-0 streak in the second quarter, with the Russians keeping the upper hand for most of the match from then on.

Just as in Argentina's 83-109 semi-final defeat to the United States, San Antonio Spurs shooting guard Manu Ginobili was the South Americans' top scorer, scoring 21 points.