Jaka Lakovic buried a three-pointer at the buzzer to give Slovenia a 69-68  triumph over Italy in the team's Group D opener in Alicante.

The Italians thought they had won the game when Matteo Soragna's three-ball gave his team a 68-66 lead with five seconds remaining.

		Matteo Soragna led Italy with 16 points in the loss.

But the Slovenian guard had the last say.

"I had no time to think and that's why I made the shot," said a delighted Lakovic.

Slovenia almost shot themselves on the foot, having led 60-47 with five minutes left to play, they allowed Italy to take a 64-63 lead with one minute left on the clock.

"At that point I thought that we didn't have the character to win big games or to kill games off," said Matjaz Smodis, who led Slovenia in scoring with 19 points.

"In the end, we showed that we do have that character and that today's victory was merit of what we had done in the previous three quarters."

Smodis scored nine points to help Slovenia establish a 21-14 lead by the end  of the opening quarter.

Slovenia then stepped up their defense and limited Italy to just two points over the next four minutes to extend their  advantage to 28-16.

Lakovic's three-ball gave Slovenia their biggest lead at 38-23.

Matteo Soragna's layup allowed the Azzurri to go into the break trailing  38-25.

Italy made just one of 10 from outside the arc in the first half.

The Azzurri emerged from the changing room a different team with an 11-0 run at the start of the third quarter cutting the Slovenia lead to 38-36.

Angelo Gigli scored seven points in that surge.

But their opponents hit right back with a 16-4 run of their own as Smodis continued to provide many of the points.

Slovenia went into the last quarter leading 56-45.

Ales Pipan's side limited Italy to just two points over the next five  minutes to take a 60-47 lead.

Massimo Bulleri ended Italy's drought by scoring the next three points.

Bulleri remained heavily involved and his three-point play cut the deficit to 62-61 with less than two minutes remaining.

"Perhaps not all of us are on the same boat," said Bulleri, who had a  game-high 20 points, 11 of which came in the last quarter.

"But the will is there."

"We must show more focus in offense and defense tomorrow."

Slovenia were superior shooting the ball from three-point range, they were five of 17 (29%) while Italy were four of 22 (19%).

Italy

Coach Carlo Recalcati: "We must recover as soon as possible from this defeat. I need the contribution of all my players if we want to do something at this EuroBasket. Of course, it is a bitter defeat considering the fact that we could have won.
I am nevertheless proud of my team because having played badly for 20 minutes, we came back strong and had a chance to win the game."

Massimo Bulleri: "Perhaps not all of us are on the same boat. But the will and the strength of this team is still here. We must show more focus in offense and defense tomorrow and try to make less errors and improve."

Slovenia

Jaka Lakovic on nailing the three-pointer at the buzzer to give his team a 69-68 win: "I had no time to think and that's why I made the shot."

Matjaz Smodis talking about the closing minutes of the game: "At that point I thought that we didn't have the character to win big games or to kill games off. In the end, we showed that we do have that character and that today's victory was merit of what we had done in the previous three quarters. This was my first official game with the national team after six years and I was really motivated to do well. I am very satisfied with my performance and I felt really good on the court."

Italy have been plagued by injuries during their build-up to the EuroBasket but are still slight favourites going into their opening Group D clash against Slovenia.

Azzurri coach Carlo Recalcati was only able to announce his final roster two days prior to the start of the competition with the injury bug robbing him of rising star Danilo Gallinari, strongman Mason Rocca and captain Giacomo Galanda.

Fortunately for the Italians, forward Andrea Bargnani has recovered from back pain while Marco Belinelli and Angelo Gigli have also overcome minor knocks.

Last Time Out: Slovenia edged Italy 84-81 in last month's Acropolis Tournament. The winners

		Lorbek must now put his recent struggles behind him

on the day had four players in double figures. Italy trailed by as many as 19 points early in the third quarter of that game but stormed back to cut the deficit to 82-81 before Slovenia pulled off the win.

Key Match-up: With Rocca out of the squad, Bargnani - who usually spends much of his time on the perimeter - will have to be strong inside to combat Slovenia's powerful Matjaz Smodis, the team's bona fide superstar.

Statistics: Slovenia coach Ales Pipan will want Smodis on the court as much as possible, but how many minutes can he reasonably be expected to play? Likewise, Recalcati will want to carefully monitor his players' minutes as much as possible with potentially a long tournament ahead of them.

X-factor: Smodis will play well, but what about Erazem Lorbek, a player with a point to prove if ever there was one. He missed the FIBA World Championship in Japan last year and then struggled so badly that he left Spanish side Unicaja Malaga to return to play professionally in Italy. Massimo Bulleri was the heart and soul of the Italian teams that took bronze at the 2003 EuroBasket and won an Olympic silver medal in Greece in 2004. He hasn't played well consistently since but, should he provide a spark, that will be a very important development for the Azzurri.

Speaking out: "Despite the initial enthusiasm and the problems and disappointments that came after, we have a competitive team. My team is really motivated, I believe my team can play against anyone - we will go game by game. I would like to know our own destiny but I can't. The only thing I know is that my players will give their all. The EuroBasket is the most important tournament, even more than the Olympics and we want to do well." - Italy coach Recalcati.