MUNICH (FIBA EuroBasket Women 2017 Qualifiers) - Having made the quarter-finals of EuroBasket Women 2015, hopes were high that Lithuania would sustain the momentum when the EuroBasket Women 2017 qualifiers tipped off last Saturday.

However the confidence gleaned from some eye-catching displays in Hungary appears to have evaporated, after a stomach-churning derby defeat to neighbours Latvia and even more worryingly, a late collapse against Slovenia on their home floor.

Losing both openers has been tough to take for all concerned after such a positive campaign earlier in the summer - but even more so because of the manner of the defeats.

While it's a little ahead of a festive season which encourages a generous spirit, Lithuania could be accused of having gift wrapped victories to their opponents after inexplicably spilling the ball an eye-popping 59 times across their two outings.

"Turnovers hit us again and we didn‘t play as planned," was the decidedly blunt response of shooting star Kamile Nacickaite - left hugely disappointed by the failure to take down Slovenia in front of an impressive 2,000 crowd in Kedainiai and one of those responsible for a chunk of the errors.

The result has heaped immediate pressure on Lithuania's new head coach Rimvydas Samulenas.

Only a couple of games into his reign, he is now feeling the heat and is at a loss as to why his team - and some might also say talented and stacked roster, have cracked under the pressure."I really don't know why we made so many mistakes," he confessed.

"Maybe the girls were nervous playing in a full arena with many relatives and friends.

"We knew that Slovenia arrived as a strong team with some very skilled players.

"But we did not manage to stick to our plan and I know that the capabilities of my team are much higher," bemoaned Samulenas.

As for Slovenia, they portrayed the kind of attributes that their play-caller Damir Grgic had demanded - also lending credence to the notion that they could be a dark horse who could ultimately ride into the light and grab a historic first spot at Final Round.

"We just played like our coach told us," confirmed veteran shooter, Maja Erkic who amassed 19 points.

"We were smart, played slowly and in the middle of the game when we had some bad minutes, we were patient and that got us the result."

FIBA