Dexia Mons-Hainaut came within a whisker of opening their EuroCup Group C campaign with a surprise as they lost out to BC Siauliai 74-73.

And one of the stars in Lithuania's silver-medal winning side at this summer's U20 European Championship Men, Arturas Jomantas, was the biggest reason why.

The 20-year-old dominated with 22 points and nine rebounds while also dishing out four assists as Siauliai held for a narrow win.

Having come joint-third in Lithuania's top flight last season, Siauliai were strong favourites to start their campaign with a victory at home.

The Belgian visitors, who have been boosted this season by the arrival of a new coach, Croatian Niksa Bavcevic, had other ideas.

They pushed their hosts to the wire in a fascinating see-saw contest.

Mons edged a high-scoring opening quarter to lead 30-28 but the hosts responded by charging into a 49-40 half-time lead.

Yet Mons hauled themselves back to within three points by the end of the third quarter.

Led by veteran Belgian forward Matthias Desaever, whose team-high 19 points included three of six from behind the arc, they kept the fight going right through the run-in but came up just short.

As for Jomantas, he made headlines in the summer with a 23-point explosion against Serbia & Montenegro and then 21 against Israel in the semi-final.

Siauliai will be counting on him to deliver big this season, and he has had an excellent start.

Siauliai did not do themselves any favours as they made just nine of 17 (52.9%) of their shots at the free throw line.

Bavcevic will have been pleased that his players won the rebounding battle, 31-26.

Dragan Markovic had seven of those to go with his 10 points.