Spartak St. Petersburg bounced back from its first loss of the Eurocup season by routing visiting Cajasol Seville 78-59 on Wednesday night. Josh Carter scored 14 points and Zach Wright quietly played a brilliant game despite only scoring 6 points to lead Spartak, which grabbed the lead midway through the first quarter and never looked back. The hosts proceeded to outscore Cajasol in every quarter and forced 17 turnovers, which proved to be enough, even though the visitors outrebounded Spartak 23-31. Vladimir Dragicevic added 13 points, Fedor Dmitriev scored 11 and Janis Strelnieks 10, while Wright led the team with 6 rebounds and 8 assists. Luka Bogdanovic paced Cajasol with 14 points and Latavious Williams tallied 12 points and 13 rebounds. Cajasol slipped to 0-2 in Group K with the loss, but plays three of its remaining four Last 16 games at home.

Cajasol scored on its first two possessions to grab an early lead and John Holland’s three-pointer made it 4-7. However the hosts soon moved ahead on Dragicevic’s basket-plus-foul. Strelnieks made it 11-7, but the visitors hung tough and Bogdanovic made it a 1-point game. Vasily Zavoruev struck back from downtown on the first-quarter buzzer to make it 17-13 after 10 minutes. Spartak looked to pull away early in the second quarter with Carter playing a leading role. Dmitriev nailed a three to make it 24-15 before Bogdanovic answered with a three-point play. The teams traded baskets, with Williams and Nikita Kurbanov scoring for their respective teams on the offensive glass, to reach 28-22 midway through the quarter. Dmitriev and Bogdanovic swapped threes as the hosts remained comfortably ahead. Carter, who was fouled shooting a three-pointer, made 3 free throws for Spartak’s first double-digit lead and Zavoruev added a triple as Spartak took a 41-28 lead into the break.

Bogdanovic scored the first points of the second half, but Strelnieks hit a jumper to put the hosts up 15 and the lead grew even more by the halfway point on the quarter. Bogdanovic continued to generate offense to leave Cajasol a chance. In the final minute of the third quarter, Strelnieks beat the 24-second clock with a jumper, which left his team up 54-39 with 10 minutes to go. Tomas Satoransky fed a cutting Milenko Tepic to bring Cajasol within 56-45 two minutes into the fourth quarter, which prompted a Spartak timeout. Carter nailed a three from the corner on the ensuing play and back-to-back threes by Kurbanov and Zavoruev essentially sealed the outcome at 65-47 with time to spare. The lead peaked at 72-51 on a Dragicevic layup as Spartak wrapped up an important win.