Lithuania pip USA

But like the Russians, who lost in overtime 82-74 to Yugoslavia, they live to fight another day and lessons have been learned.

The Americans fought back well after trailing by as much as 14 points, but coach Rudy Tomjanovic, who has had just three weeks to shape a team of non-NBA players, said: quot;We knew of Lithuania8217;s offensive talent and we should have stopped them earlier.quot;

quot;I hope this defeat will wake us up and eventually do us good,quot; he said.

The Americans should find the lightweight South Korean team more to their liking in today8217;s final group game and progress safely to the second round.

Lithuania, already qualified afterthe win, will be looking for more heroics from Arturas Karnisovas, who contributed a magnificent 29 points.

But all teams will need to be at their best to beat either Yugoslavia or Russia who sent out a chilly warning from the Olympic Stadium in an impressively powerful display of basketball.

It could have gone either way and the fact that the Yugoslavs edged it takes nothing away from the experienced Russians, runners-up in 1994 to the United States.

Equally, the Yugoslavs, who are without some of their best players, partly because of the NBA dispute, looked as if they could add a world crown to the European title they won last year.

Greece, the obvious and massive stumbling block, continued on their winning ways with a 64-56 victory over Italy in the last match of the day.

The Olympic Stadium was packed to its 20,000 capacity as the fervent Greek support cheered their heroes home.

They had even found time earlier in the night to lift Senegal from the depths of 0-15 against Canada to 41-45 in thesecond half before the Africans ran out of steam and the Canadians won 70-57.