Sweet-shooting forward Sergey Monya is starting to give the Russians something to chirp about less than a month before they begin their EuroBasket title defense.

The 26-year-old poured in 18 points, including a two-of-four effort from long range, in a 70-66 win over Slovenia in their second friendly this week in Ljubljana.

Equally impressive was Monya's work on the boards. He finished with a game-high 12 rebounds.

Viktor Khryapa - one of Russia's top players two years ago in their gold-medal triumph in Spain - contributed 14 points and Andrey Vorontsevich 12.

"The Russians are now playing with great fight," Slovenia coach Jure Zdovc said.

"We were poor, despite having opportunities to win at the end of the game."

CSKA Moscow power forward/center Erazem Lorbek finished with a game-high 24 points for Slovenia but he endured an almighty struggle at the free-throw line, making just eight of 16.