Slovenia and Israel took the first step to remaining in the U20 European Championship Division A by notching victories in the first games of the classification round.

Zoran Dragic collected 26 points, eight rebounds and four steals as Slovenia beat Germany 86-77 to improve to 1-0.

Miro Bilan and Bojan Bogdanovic combined for 46 points as Croatia held off Serbia 82-74 to capture second place in Group D of the U20 European Championship.

Bilan had 24 points and nine rebounds while Bogdanovic collected 22 points, five rebounds, seven assists and three steals for Croatia who finished the preliminary round with a 2-1 record.