TRENTINO (EuroBasket 2015) - Germany and hosts Italy emerged as winners over Austria and the Netherlands, respectively, in Thursday's opening-day clashes of the Trentino Cup, the first big warm-up tournament ahead of EuroBasket 2015.

The Germans took to the floor for their maiden game under recently-installed head coach Chris Fleming without Dirk Nowitzki, Dennis Schroder and Tibor Pleiss, who are all joining the national team training camp in August.

Austria did not qualify to this year's EuroBasket but they had given their neighbours a hard time during the qualifying campaign and Thursday's friendly between the two sides was not an exception.

Germany however led 29-24 at half-time and maintained a firm grip on proceedings throughout the second half to register a stress-free 64-52 win.

Heiko Schaffartzik, who reached his 100th cap with Germany on Thursday, as well as Robin Benzing scored nine points each, while up-and-coming big man Johannes Voigtmann had eight points and a game-high 11 rebounds.

Paul Zipser left an excellent impression in his senior national team debut and finished with five points.

"The first game is always difficult, no matter what is the team and what competition you are in," coach Fleming said afterwards.

"The positive aspect was that we put a stop to our mistakes and took care of the ball.

"Of course there was a lack of coordination, but that's normal after such a short preparation time and I am not concerned about it."

For Austria, point guard Thomas Schreiner collected a game-high 12 points and young center Jozo Rados added 11 in losing efforts.

"Austria has a good team, I already said it last year," Benzing commented.

"We can be sort of satisfied already with our defence, offence is obviously still a work in progress but we will certainly get better."

Defense was also the word on everybody's lips in the second game on the opening day, between Italy and the Netherlands, as the hosts claimed a 64-52 win, a score identical to the game which raised the curtain on the Trentino Cup.

In what was the first warm-up match-up this summer between two EuroBasket-bound teams. Italy enjoyed their best stretch during the second quarter and opened up a 40-29 gap right before the interval.

The hosts extended their lead to as many as 17 points during the third frame but the Netherlands only gave up nine points in the entire fourth period and reduced the final point differential.

Luigi Datome was in superb form and paced Italy with 19 points, Alessandro Gentile had nine points and four assists while Nicolo Melli collected seven points and eight rebounds.

For the Netherlands, Charlon Kloof had 10 points and three assists while Roeland Schaftenaar contributed eight points and five boards in defeat.

"We lacked game rhythm because during the first week of training camp we worked a lot on physical exercises and video sessions, in order to be prepared for the second stage of preparations" commented Italy head coach Simone Pianigiani.

"Today [Thursday] I was curious to see how the guys would attempt to play together on the court, to adapt to difficulties and find the passing lanes.

"And I was very satisfied by the result, as my players managed to find each other, to help each other defensively even though they were out out of breath and without game rhythm whatsoever."

Italy's three NBA players, Danilo Gallinari, Marco Belinelli and Andrea Bargani will not suit up in the Trentino Cup.

On Friday, Italy take on Austria while Germany face the Netherlands.

The tournament in Trento concludes on Saturday with the Netherlands playing Austria and the hosts going up against Germany.

Go to eurobasket2015.org for more coverage of EuroBasket 2015.

FIBA