Game Summary

Turning point: Jaka Lakovic hit his fifth and sixth three-pointers early in the third quarter to make it 51-28 and put the game well and truly beyond Lithuania's reach.

Hero: Who else but Lakovic. He connected on his first four attempts from beyond the arc and had his game-high 24 points through three quarters of play.

Stats: While Slovenia had the hot hand, Lithuania struggled mightily, hitting just 38 percent of their shots (21 of 58 including six of 22 from three-point range).

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Slovenia eased their way past Lithuania 81-58 in Group F of the EuroBasket 2009 Qualifying Round in Lodz.

Jaka Lakovic erupted for a game-high 24 points as Jure Zdovc's side improved to 2-1 while the Lithuanians dropped to 0-3 and must now beat both Spain and Serbia in their remaining games to stand a chance of reaching the last eight.

Slovenia Fans were vastly outnumbered by their Lithuanian counterparts, but they left the arena in a much better mood.

Lakovic had the hot hand on the night, connecting on six of nine three-point attempts and had his total tally all wrapped up by the end of the third quarter, to help his team go up 62-39 heading into the final frame.

"We always do a very good job of passing the ball around and trying to find the open man or the one who has a good rhythm. I guess it was me today," he said afterwards.

Slovenia will also be encouraged by the performance of Uros Slokar, playing his first significant amount of minutes in the tournament after recovering from injuries. The center finished with 11 points and four rebounds in 19 minutes of play, allowing for Primoz Brezec to get some rest.

Up 43-26 at the break, Slovenia quickly got their lead to over 20 points early in the third quarter as Lakovic knocked down two three-pointers and Slokar scored down low in an 8-2 run for a 51-28 advantage.

The points also came in some style at times. Midway through the third period, Erazem Lorbek stole the ball near midcourt and found a streaking Goran Dragic who made a behind the back pass to Lakovic for a lay-up.

Lithuania got within 15, 71-55, on Mantas Kalnietis' basket with 6:15 left to play but Domen Lorbek then hit another three-pointer for Slovenia and they pushed the lead north of 20 for the final score.

Slovenia were the quickest out of the gates as Lakovic hit two three-pointers to put Slovenia up 12-8 early on.

Linas Kleiza then scored five straight points to edge Lithuania in front 13-12 before Slovenia finished the first period on a 15-6 run for their first double-digit lead of the night, 28-18, after Bostjan Nachbar buried a corner three-pointer in the closing seconds of the period.

After hitting their first five three-point attempts, Slovenia cooled off from long range but were scoring from inside the arc as Erazem Lorbek and Uros Slokar got some lay-ups for a 43-26 half-time lead.

Lakovic had 16 points by the break, hitting his first four three-point attempts and making good on all four of his free-throws.

Lithuania struggled mightily at both ends of the court and head coach Ramunas Butautas acknowledged as much afterwards.

"This is our worst performance in this tournament," he said after watching his team shoot just 36 percent (21 of 58) and turn the ball over 14 times.

"We were as bad on offense as on defense. I won't make my players the guilty ones. We hope we can do better in our last two games and make the most of our chances to still qualify for the quarter-finals."

"We played very badly. We all tried a lot of different things but none of them worked," conceded Lithuanian center Robert Javtokas.

Jure Zdovc (Slovenia Coach):

"I want to congratulate my players, they were really excellent today. They executed everything what we prepared. We talked about starting strong, because the Lithuanians were after two losses and we knew that if we can take a lead they will start to struggle offensively. Our spacing and movement of the ball was very good today. I want also once again to thank our fans for their support."

Jurica Golemac (Slovenia Forward):

"We are very happy with this win, we knew it wouldn't be easy and we wanted to have a strong start. We did exactly that and their confidence was down. We did exactly what coach told us during preparation for the game."  

Ramunas Butautas (Lithuania Coach):

"It was our worst game of the Eurobasket, they were faster and stronger than us. On the other side we were lethargic defensively and terrible offensively. We still have a theoretical chance to advance to the Quarter-Finals and my team will fight in the remaining two games."

Simas Jasaitis (Lithuania):

"I don't understand what happened with our team. You ask me about it, but I have no answer. Yes, it is our third defeat on this championship, but we cannot find a remedy for this situation."

Lithuania have their work cut out as they look to overcome an 0-2 hole in Group F of the Qualifying Round.

On Saturday, Ramunas Butautas' side go up against in-form Slovenia, who came very close to finishing with a perfect 3-0 mark in Group C, also known as the ‘Group of Death'.

An overtime defeat against world champions Spain put an end to the winning streak, but Jure Zdvoc's side still took top honours in Warsaw.

Meanwhile, a win over Bulgaria on the last day of the Preliminary Round saw Lithuania secure the final place in Lodz but, by their own admission, there is a lot of work to be done in several key areas.

The free-throw shooting woes that affected them in the first two games looked to have been resolved against the Bulgarians as Lithuania made 22 of 24 attempts from the charity stripe.

However, their 20 turnovers are a worryingly high number while the production - or lack thereof - from their backcourt players will have to be addressed and resolved as they face a Slovenian side getting a huge lift from all of their guards.

Slovenia will feel confident heading into this game and rightly so. They have been playing well at both ends of the floor while doing a good job of managing the minutes of their key players.

It will be a big bonus if they can get out to an early lead and still have the luxury of resting and limiting the minutes of Uros Slokar and Matjaz Smodis who are slowly working their way back into the line-up.

Head to head: Lithuania leads the series 4-1 and have won the last four, including an 80-61 win at the EuroBasket 2007 that ended Slovenia's 5-0 start to the tournament.

Last time out: Lithuania beat Bulgaria 84-69 to clinch their first win and Slovenia lost to Spain 90-84 in suffering their only defeat.

X-factor: Backcourt play. Lithuania head coach Ramunas Butautas has stuck with Andrius Mazutis as his starting point guard in the first three games and the move has been seen as questionable with the 1.79m failing to have any positive impact. Perhaps Tomas Delininkaitis should be given more minutes. Lithuania are lacking in depth at both guard positions in this tournament and have no one could can fill the shoes of Sarunas Jasikevicius and Rimantas Kaukenas. Meanwhile, Slovenia are spoilt for choice with Jaka Lakovic, Goran Dragic, Domen Lorbek and Samo Udrih having all had - and taken - their chances to make big plays in their opening three games. Sixth man Dragic in particular will be one to look at, coming off impressive displays against Serbia and Spain.

Stats: 44 - The number of times Lithuania turned the ball over in their opening three games. They will have to take care of the ball better and that might not prove too easy, especially when Dragic - who went for six steals against Spain - is on the court.

Sounding off: "Things are not clicking for us at the moment. We hope we can get it right in the Qualifying Round. We were playing much better heading into the tournament but we can now leave behind the past and focus on starting on the right foot in this group." Lithuania center Robert Javtokas.