Yugoslavia, playing its first international event after 21/2 years of U.N. sanctions, won basketball's European Championship on Sunday in a politically charged 96-90 victory over Lithuania.
Aleksandar Djordjevic scored 41 points for the Yugoslavs in a game in which the Lithuanians nearly walked off the court with two minutes left to protest the officiating of George Toliver of the United States and Nikos Pitsilkas of Greece."We were not brave enough to do that," Lithuanian coach Vladas Garastas said. "It was a terrible refereeing. We couldn't go on, we couldn't stand it. There was a political hand in the game, someone wanted to prove that Yugoslavia is the best team in Europe. We made a mistake by coming back."
He also said Yugoslavia should not have been allowed to play because of the fighting in Bosnia-Herzegovina. He accused Bora Stankovic, the Yugoslav secretary general of basketball's governing body, of favoring Yugoslavia.
"This is the bottom of basketball," said Sarunas Marciulionis, the Seattle SuperSonics guard who led Lithuania with 32 points. "The refereeing cost us the game."
Yugoslav coach Dusan Ivkovic downplayed the charges."We also fought against the referees," he said. "We picked up a lot of fouls."
The game's two big men fouled out - Yugoslavia's Vlade Divac of the Los Angeles Lakers and Lithuania's Arvidas Sabonis, who is heading to the Portland Trail Blazers.
Sabonis had tears in his eyes at the end of the game, whose outcome touched off patriotic celebrations in Belgrade.
Lithuania won the 1937 and 1939 titles and was trying to win its first since regaining independence with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
A five-time winner with its former teams, Yugoslavia now consists only of Serbia and Montenegro.
Croatia won the bronze medal with a 73-68 victory over host Greece. Veljko Mrsic, playing for injured Toni Kukoc, scored 20 points to lead the Croats. Kukoc, the Chicago Bulls swingman, cut his non-shooting hand during the quarterfinals.
Dino Radja, Croatia's other NBA star who plays for the Boston Celtics, sat out the second half and finished with five points.