Spartak St. Petersburg took sole possession of first place in Group G with an 89-71 victory at home over Ratiopharm Ulm, which suffered its first loss of the campaign. Spartak’s Josh Carter nailed 6 three-pointers in leading all players with 24 points while Vladimir Dragicevic had 17 points, Loukas Mavrokefalides chipped in 14 points and Zach Wright collected 6 points and 11 assists for St. Petersburg, which improved to 3-0. Ulm, now 2-1 in the group, was paced by Allan Ray and Dane Watts with 14 points apiece. Star center John Bryant was held to just 9 points and 3 rebounds for Ulm.

Spartak worked hard getting the ball into the blocks early with Mavrokefalides helping open a 16-11 lead. Fedor Dimitriev hit from downtown to push the advantage to 19-11. Ulm’s reserves brought the guests back into the game with Keaton Nankivil and Sebastian Betz picking up the slack as Ulm trailed just 26-23 after one quarter. Fellow Ulm back-up Daniel Theis came on for some strong play in the second quarter but Dragicevic scored six straight points for Spartak, which opened a 42-34 lead. And the cushion was 45-36 after a Carter triple. Bryant scored two straight baskets to cut into the margin but the Russian hosts still led 48-41 at the break.

Carter’s three to start the second half made it a double-digit game and Patrick Beverley’s first points came on a long ball in pushing the gap to 11 points – 58-47. Ray knocked down a three-ball of his own to bring Ulm back to within 60-52. But Carter sandwiched three-pointers around a Mavrokefalides basket and St. Petersburg led 68-52. The lead was 72-58 after three quarters. Ulm cut the margin to 10 points twice – 72-62 and 74-64 – but the German runners-up from last season just could not get the margin to single digits, though Ulm did a good job slowing down St. Petersburg. Eventually, Beverley nailed a three-ball with just more than four minutes left to push the lead back to 14 points 78-64 and Carter’s triple increased it to 85-68 and the guests could find no answer.