Lithuania used their superior size advantage and some timely three-point shooting to open their 2009 EuroBasket Women Group C campaign with an impressive 71-49 victory over Serbia.

Gintare Petronyte scored 20 points and grabbed eight rebounds while Egle Stakneviciene added 19 points to lead the Lithuanians.

Rutenis Palauskas's Lithuanians out-rebounded the Serbians 43-25, including 12 offensive rebounds at the Vidzemes Olimpiskas Centrs in Valmiera. Ana Perovic was the only Serb to score in double figures with 11 points.

Lithuania can improve to 2-0 in Group C on Monday when they take on Turkey. Serbia meanwhile look to rebound as they face off against defending champions Russia.

"We controlled ourselves in the beginning even though there was a lot of tension. But we did well rebounding and kept our control for 40 minutes. We were really afraid of their speed but we were able to stop that," said Paulaukas, whose team limited Serbia to four fast break points.

"Our centers were very strong today and we played very disciplined and made good decisions offensively," said Lithuania's Sandra Valuzyte, who added 11 points, eight rebounds and four assists.

Serbia coach Jovica Antonic said his team's inability to defend was too much to overcome, adding: "It's not bad to lose with a big difference. But the problem was how we played."

"We didn't do our assignments defensively or offensively. And they scored inside and made long shots so we couldn't get out on the break," said Sonja Petrovic, who was held to eight points as she dealt with foul trouble.

Serbia struggled out of the gates as Lithuania used their size advantage in the paint.

Petronyte and Agne Ciudariene both benefitted from offensive rebounds in grabbing a 7-2 lead while Serbia power forward Jelena Milovanovic picked up two fouls within the first two minutes. Serbia pulled to within 7-6 but missed four straight shots and the Lithuanians jumped back ahead 11-6. Daina Staugaitiene's triple made it 14-8. And Petronyte's basket in the paint gave her nine first quarter points and Lithuania a 16-10 advantage.

Tamara Radocaj's layup trimmed the gap to 17-12 but three straight baskets by Lithuania - the last being Stakneviciene's three-pointer - and three scoreless Serbian possessions had Paulauskas's team ahead 24-12. Serbia tried to fight their way back into the game but Staugaitiene drained back-to-back three-balls and Ciudariene's layup pushed the lead to 15 points - 32-17. The Serbs got to within 34-23 on Marija Eric's layup. But the margin was back to 38-25 at intermission.

Ausra Bimbaite's three-pointer early in the third quarter pushed the gap to 18 points, 43-25. Both sides struggled offensively for the most of the first half of the period. Petrovic picked up her fourth foul of the game with more than four minutes left in the quarter and another Bimbaite triple gave Lithuania their biggest lead at 20 points, 51-31. Radocaj would knock down a three-ball of her own as Serbia cut the deficit to 52-38 after three periods.

Serbia scored on just one of the first eight possessions of the fourth quarter as Lithuania pulled ahead 58-40 half way through the period. And the Lithuanians eventually got into the bonus and used free throws to pull away, pushing the lead to 29 points.

Rutenis PAULAUSKAS, Lithuania Head Coach

"Thank for the big support from the fans. The Serbian team played very aggressive basketball. For us this is a good start to this important tournament."

Jovica ANTONIC, Serbian Head Coach

"We hope that this loss will have an impact on the next games against Russia and Turkey. This loss should wake us up and we will play better."

Lithuania look to shrug off a couple of key missing players as they open their EuroBasket Women Group C action against a young but motivated and talented Serbia side.

The opening game on Sunday's Valmiera bill is a crucial one as both teams can ill afford an early setback with showdowns up-coming against defending champions Russia and Turkey.

Rutenis Paulauskas has some holes to fill if he hopes to advance to Riga.

Head-to-Head: This will be the second match-up of these two nations after Serbia & Montenegro beat Lithuania 77-74 in the Preliminary Round of the 2005 EuroBasket Women.

Last Time Out: Lithuania's last warm-up came against Russia and coach Rutenis Paulauskas's Baltic side gave the reigning EuroBasket Women champions a tough game for three quarters before losing 72-62. Serbia knocked off Greece 90-64 in the Porto San Giorgio tournament in Italy.

Key match-up: Lithuanian second guard vs. Young Serbs.  Paulauskas will have to hope his second guard of players can make up for the losses of injured stars Jurgita Streimikyte-Virbickiene and Aurimas Rinkeviciute as well as the pregnancy of Iveta Salkauske. In addition, Daina Staugaitiene was dealing with an injury in the run-up to the tournament and may not be at full strength. Serbia coach Jovica Antonic meanwhile is relying on a number of extremely talented but still young players. Main pillars Sonja Petrovic and Jelena Milovanovic are both just 20 years old while Miljana Musovic is 22 and Maja Miljkovic is just 21. That quartet knows each other from moving up through the Serbian junior ranks. And how well they play will go a long way in determining how far they go in this tournament - starting with the game against Lithuania.

X-Factor: Sonja Petrovic. FIBA Europe's 2007 Young Player of the Year is returning to top form after a serious knee injury cost the small forward nearly this entire past season. But she looked strong in the warm-up games and convinced Antonic to include her in the roster. A big factor will be how Petrovic holds up over the course of the gruelling tournament.

Key Stats: 10.2 and 6.1. Those were the averages of points and rebounds that Salkauske had at the EuroBasket 2007. And Paulauskas will have to find a way to replace those numbers, not to mention the veteran leadership of Streimikyte-Virbickiene (13.4 ppg, 7.3 rpg and 2.5 apg at 2006 World Championship) and the promise of Rinkeviciute (20.1 ppg, 8.5 rpg and 4.0 apg at 2008 U18 European Championship).

Sounding Off:  "The (Lithuanian) federation has set a very high goal of achievement for the team (to qualify for the World Championship) and it will be very difficult. When the goal was made, we still had all of the players. But even when we lost Jurgita Streimikyte-Virbickiene, Aurimas Rinkeviciute and Iveta Salkauske, they didn't change their goal." -Lithuanian coach Rutenis Paulauskas