Australian Emus coach Robbie McKinlay had a list of plays drawn up with just 48 seconds left in the fourth quarter and his team down by six points to Cameroon at the under-19 basketball World Cup.

McKinlay’s playbook wasn’t needed to win the game, however. Cameroon’s Amadou Seini dunked the ball in his own basket to help send the game into overtime and Australia staged a remarkable comeback win.

Seini’s mistake is extremely rare, but it has happened before in basketball.

In an exhibition game in 2013, University of Kentucky player Joe Young tried to save the ball from going out of bounds and as he flicked it behind his back, it landed in his own net.

Seini’s act was remarkable in that the centre received the baseline pass from his own player after an Australian basket and immediately dunked to gift the Emus two points and reduce the margin to four.

Alex Dickeson hit a crucial three-pointer for Australia with four seconds remaining to tie the game and send it into double overtime. The Emus eventually secured a 101-96 victory with Roman Siulepa and Dash Daniels each scoring 22 points.

The Emus are in the toughest group in the tournament, paired with favourites the USA, Cameroon and France.

Australia had lost on the first day of the tournament against the USA by 15 points, meaning they needed a win against Cameroon to keep their tournament hopes alive ahead of the final group game against France.

Apart from gifting the Emus two valuable points, Seini had enjoyed an outstanding game, finishing with 15 points and an under-19 World Cup all-time high of 25 rebounds, sharing the record with Australia’s former NBA star and Sydney Kings owner Andrew Bogut.