Bisons Loimaa beat Spartak St. Petersburg 77-88 on the road to temporarily extend its season, but its Last 32 hopes came to an end later Wednesday when other results in Group H did not go the Finnish champs’ way. Accordingly Bisons, which sits in fourth place in the group with a 4-5 record, has been mathematically eliminated from reaching the next stage. Spartak dropped to 3-6 and is tied for fifth place. The game was close throughout the first three quarters. Bisons used a 0-8 run bridging the third and fourth quarters to take the lead for good and iced the game with a late 0-9 charge for the game’s first double-digit lead. John Williamson paced the Finnish champs with 24 points and 9 rebounds. Frank Robinson scored 17, Mikko Koivisto 13, Tuukka Kotti 12 and Billy Keys ran the attack with 9 points and 9 assists. Jared Homan led the home side with 23 points and 11 rebounds. Steve Burtt Jr. tallied 20 points and 7 assists and Artem Iakovenko netted 12 points in defeat.

Spartak jumped out to a 5-0 lead on Burtt’s three-point play, but Bisons surged ahead as Billy Keys scored or assisted on two of the next three baskets to make it 5-6. Iakovenko made an instant impact in restoring Spartak control. The back-and-forth feel for the game continued. Robinson’s basket-plus foul gave Bisons a small lead. Burtt boosted Spartak again, Robinson returned the favor and Homan’s basket tied the game at 20-20 through 10 minutes. Little changed in the second quarter. Homan free throws helped the hosts to a 27-22 lead and Burtt later gave Spartak a 7-point cushion, however Williamson scored half the points in a 0-10 Bisons response to make it 34-37. A Donnie McGrath triple evened the score at 41-41 before Homan gave the home side a 45-43 halftime edge from the line. The lead changed hands several times in the early part of the second before Homan made it 56-51. Bisons stayed close and Koivisto’s bucket brought the Finnish champs within 64-62 at the end of the third quarter. Three different players scored on Bisons’ first three possessions of the fourth quarter in building a 64-68 advantage. Burtt closed the gap to 70-73 with five minutes to go. Free throws by Williamson and Robinson helped extend Bisons’ lead to 70-76. Yaroslav Korolev trimmed the deficit to 4 before the visitors finished the game with a 0-9 run capped by a Koivisto triple.