Rising Slovenian star Erazem Lorbek helped his country make history this week by earning a place at the FIBA World Championship for the first time.

In the process, the 2.09m center, who is still only 21 years old, says he grew up a lot on the court.

Lithuania will go back home with the 5th spot in EuroBasket 2005 after beating Slovenia 79-70 in the 5-6 classification game on Sunday. Both teams will play next year in the World Championship in Japan 2006.

Lithuania connected on 7 of their 14 shots from behind the arc, while Slovenia struggled tonight from the same range with 3 out of 20.

Slovenia overcame a big early deficit to beat Croatia 89-80 and claim the final World Championship place still up for grabs at EuroBasket 2005.

The Slovenians, who went unbeaten in the group stage but fell apart against Dirk Nowitzki and Germany in their quarter-final, will now try to play Lithuania in a battle for fifth place on Sunday afternoon.

The Slovenians have always had potential, but it has never materialized into a medal at an international competition. It will be the same in Belgrade – they are talented enough to climb on the podium. But as always, it will take more than talent, so the Slovenians went to work real early…