Scope
The rule and version used here
This page uses FIBA Official Basketball Rules 2024, version 1.0a, valid from 1 October 2024, as the international baseline. The controlling provisions are Articles 34 and 36–44, especially Article 41, “Team fouls: Penalty.” It was also checked against the matching FIBA Official Interpretations 2024, version 1.0a.
“Bonus” is common broadcast language. FIBA calls it the team foul penalty situation. NBA, NCAA and United States high-school rules are compared separately below because their counts, reset points and penalties are not interchangeable. A national federation, league or tournament may publish competition regulations that supplement the FIBA baseline.
Core count
“After four” means the fifth eligible foul brings shots
FIBA Article 41.1.1 defines a team foul as a personal, technical, unsportsmanlike or disqualifying foul committed by a player. Once four such fouls have been committed in the quarter, the team is in the penalty. Article 41.2.1 then converts each following player personal foul on a non-shooter from a throw-in into two free throws.
The foul that changes the ordinary penalty is therefore the fifth team foul, not the fourth. The fourth completes the allowance; the next eligible personal foul is penalised with two shots. A special foul may add to the count while carrying a different penalty of its own.
Player foul and team foul are different records: a player can have one personal total while the team has a separate quarter total. Reaching the team penalty does not disqualify any player; FIBA player exclusion occurs after five player fouls under Article 40.
Decision path
How to decide the restart
- Name the ruleset and period. A fifth foul does not mean the same thing in every competition.
- Classify the foul. Decide whether it is personal, shooting, team-control, technical, unsportsmanlike, disqualifying, double or another special category.
- Record it correctly. Ask whether this foul adds to the team total under that ruleset.
- Use the foul's own penalty first. A shooting or special-foul provision is not replaced by the ordinary bonus.
- For a non-shooting personal foul, check control. Under FIBA, a foul by the team controlling the live ball or entitled to the ball produces an opponent throw-in.
- Otherwise check the team count. Before the fifth FIBA team foul the result is normally a throw-in; on the fifth and later eligible foul it is two free throws.
- Check timing exceptions and other fouls. The final-two-minute throw-in rule, simultaneous fouls and correctable errors can change administration.
Ordinary fouls
What changes when the penalty begins
- Non-shooting defensive personal foul, team under the limit: the offended team receives a throw-in from the place nearest the infraction under FIBA Article 34.2.1.
- Non-shooting defensive personal foul, fifth or later team foul: the fouled player attempts two free throws under Article 41.2.1.
- Personal foul while neither team controls the ball: the same count test applies. If the offender's team is already in the penalty, the fouled non-shooter receives two free throws.
- Personal foul by the team controlling the live ball or entitled to it: the opponents receive a throw-in under Article 41.2.2, even when the offending team is over the limit.
The final point is why a charge or illegal offensive screen is not turned into bonus free throws. The foul can still increase the team total, but possession status controls that foul's immediate penalty.
Shooting fouls
The shooting penalty comes before the team count
FIBA Article 34.2.2 applies whether the defence has zero team fouls or is already in the penalty. A successful shot counts and the shooter receives one free throw. On a missed shot, the shooter receives two or three free throws according to the value of the attempt.
The bonus does not add another pair. If a defender commits the team's sixth foul while the shooter makes a two-point goal, the result is the basket plus one free throw—not the basket plus three free throws. The NBA states the same anti-stacking principle expressly in Rule 12B, Section V(a)(6).
Special penalties
Fouls that do not follow the ordinary two-shot path
- Technical foul: FIBA Article 36 awards one free throw and then resumes at the point specified by that article. A technical charged to a player counts as a team foul; a technical charged against the head coach for a person permitted on the bench does not.
- Unsportsmanlike or disqualifying foul: Articles 37 and 38 set their own free-throw and frontcourt-possession penalties. When committed by a player, the foul also enters the team total, but the ordinary bonus does not replace or duplicate its special penalty.
- Throw-in foul: in the last 2:00 of the fourth quarter or any overtime, a defensive personal foul on an opponent while the ball is still with the referee or thrower-in brings one free throw to the fouled player plus the throw-in, whether or not the defence was already in the penalty (Articles 34.1.2 and 34.2.3).
- Double foul: FIBA Article 35 generally awards no free throws for the matching foul pair; play resumes according to the ball status. Do not award ordinary bonus shots merely because one team was over the limit.
- Fight-related bench disqualifications: Article 39 and the scoresheet instructions include specific team-foul exceptions. They should not be counted by analogy with an ordinary player foul.
Quarter boundaries
FIBA resets quarters—but not before overtime
The team-foul count starts again for the second, third and fourth quarters. A foul committed during an interval is treated as occurring in the quarter or overtime that follows, under Article 41.1.2.
Overtime is different. Article 41.1.3 treats every team foul in every overtime as a fourth-quarter foul. The fourth-quarter total therefore carries into overtime and continues across later overtimes. If a team ended the fourth quarter with four or more team fouls, its first eligible non-shooting personal foul in overtime brings two free throws.
NBA variation
NBA 2025–26 adds a final-two-minute quota
NBA Rule 12B, Section V allows four common team fouls without the additional penalty in each 12-minute regulation period; the fifth and later eligible common fouls bring two free throws. In overtime, the first three are allowed and the fourth and later bring two.
There is also a separate timing rule. If a team has not used its four-foul quota during the first 10 minutes of a quarter, it may commit only one team foul in the final 2:00 without the penalty. The next eligible common foul in those final two minutes brings two shots even if the scoreboard total is below five. The same structure uses a three-foul quota for the first three minutes of overtime.
Ordinary NBA offensive personal fouls neither add a team foul nor produce penalty free throws under Rule 12B, Section VII. Flagrant and punching offensive fouls are express exceptions with their own penalties.
NCAA men
The one-and-one still exists in 2026–27 men's college play
NCAA men's basketball counts team fouls by half. For an eligible non-shooting foul, the seventh, eighth and ninth team fouls bring a one-and-one: the shooter earns the second attempt only by making the first. The 10th and later team fouls bring two free throws.
The 2026–27 NCAA Men's Basketball Case Book, Approved Ruling 2-22, expressly treats the ninth foul of the second half as a one-and-one. The team count resets at halftime, not at quarter-style media breaks. An extra period is not a new half, so the second-half foul situation continues.
NCAA women
Women's college play uses two shots from the fifth
Under the 2025–26 and 2026–27 NCAA Women's Basketball Rules, Rule 8-2, the fifth and later team foul in a quarter gives two free throws for each personal foul except an offensive foul. There is no one-and-one. Counts reset for each regulation quarter, and Rule 5-9 makes each overtime an extension of the fourth quarter.
This resembles the headline FIBA threshold but is not the same rulebook. Technical-foul categories, resumptions, review procedures and definitions must still be taken from the NCAA women's code.
US high school
NFHS removed the one-and-one in 2023–24
NFHS Rule 4-8-1 has awarded two free throws for an eligible common foul beginning with the fifth team foul in each quarter since the 2023–24 season. The former seventh-foul one-and-one and 10th-foul double bonus no longer apply. The fourth-quarter count continues into extra periods.
The NFHS 2026–27 published changes do not alter that bonus structure. State associations can adopt permitted modifications, and non-NFHS youth or scholastic leagues may use different foul counts, so the appointed competition rules still control.
Worked case 1
FIBA's fifth foul is a hold before the shot
Situation: with 6:12 left in the second quarter, Blue has four team fouls. Blue 8 holds Red 4 before Red begins an act of shooting.
FIBA 2024 ruling: Red 4 attempts two free throws. The hold is Blue's fifth team foul, and Article 41.2.1 replaces the non-shooting throw-in with two shots. The fifth foul itself triggers the penalty; officials do not wait for a sixth.
Worked case 2
A charge counts but does not give bonus shots
Situation: Red controls the live ball and already has four team fouls. Red 6 charges into a defender in a legal guarding position.
FIBA 2024 ruling: charge a player personal foul and add Red's fifth team foul, but award Blue a throw-in—not two free throws. Article 41.2.2 controls because the foul was committed by the team in control. Red is in the penalty for a later eligible foul.
Worked case 3
The fourth-quarter total follows FIBA teams into overtime
Situation: Blue ends the fourth quarter with five team fouls. Thirty seconds into overtime, Blue 9 holds Red 7 away from a shot.
FIBA 2024 ruling: Red 7 receives two free throws. Article 41.1.3 treats overtime team fouls as fourth-quarter fouls, so Blue does not receive a fresh four-foul allowance.
Worked case 4
An NBA team can reach the penalty below five
Situation: Blue has one team foul when an NBA quarter reaches 2:00. Blue then commits an ordinary non-shooting defensive foul at 1:35 and another at 0:48.
NBA 2025–26 ruling: the first final-two-minute foul is the one allowed without penalty; the second sends the offended player to two free throws. Rule 12B-V(a)(3) applies even though the displayed total is only three.
Worked case 5
The ninth NCAA men's foul is not two guaranteed shots
Situation: Blue commits its ninth team foul of the second half against a non-shooter, and the foul is eligible for the bonus.
NCAA men 2026–27 ruling: the player shoots one-and-one. A missed first attempt ends the free-throw sequence; a made first earns the second. Two guaranteed attempts begin with Blue's 10th team foul.
Table duties
The scorer displays the count; the rules decide the penalty
Under FIBA Article 48, the scorer records player fouls and marks the team total. After the ball becomes live following the fourth team foul in a quarter, the team-foul marker is shown fully in red with no number visible. That signal tells the crew that the next eligible personal foul is in the penalty.
A display error does not rewrite the score sheet or the rule. Officials should stop and reconcile the record before administering the restart when possible. Awarding unmerited free throws, failing to award merited free throws, charging the wrong person or team, and certain scorekeeping mistakes are category 1 correctable errors under FIBA Article 44.
Correctable errors
A missed bonus is not correctable forever
FIBA's 2024 Article 44 expanded the correction window. An error occurring before the last 2:00 of the fourth quarter generally must be identified before that point; if the first referee stoppage occurs at or below 2:00, it must be corrected before the ball next becomes live. An error in the last 2:00 or in overtime must be identified before the ball becomes live after the first referee stoppage following the error.
Correction does not erase later fouls, elapsed time or other activity. If merited free throws were omitted, Article 44.4.2 sets different resumptions depending on whether possession changed or the same team scored after receiving the mistaken throw-in. NBA and NCAA have their own correction windows; the FIBA deadline must not be imported into those games.
Common mistakes
Five claims to avoid
- “The fourth foul gives free throws.” In FIBA, the fourth completes the allowance; the next eligible personal foul gives two shots.
- “Every foul in the bonus is two shots.” Team-control, shooting, technical, unsportsmanlike, disqualifying, throw-in and double fouls have distinct rules.
- “A made basket plus a foul gets extra bonus shots.” The shooting-foul penalty is not stacked with another pair.
- “College basketball always uses one-and-one.” NCAA men do; NCAA women and NFHS do not under the current editions checked.
- “Overtime always resets the count.” FIBA carries the fourth-quarter total; NBA supplies a separate overtime quota; NCAA and NFHS treat overtime as an extension of the preceding period or half.
Official references
Governing-body sources and effective versions
Checked on 26 August 2026 against the current FIBA publication hub and the official competition sources above. FIBA 2024 is the page's controlling baseline. NBA, NCAA and NFHS paragraphs are named variations, not interpretations of FIBA rules. Competition regulations and state-adopted modifications may supplement the cited books.