Lukoil Academic Sofia kept alive its hopes of reaching the Eurocup Last 16 for at least one more night by beating Belgacom Spirou 61-79 on the road in Group B on Tuesday. Lukoil raised its record to 2-3 and awaits a Wednesday game between KK Buducnost (3-1) and Bilbao Basket (4-0). If Buducnost wins that, Lukoil is eliminated. If not, they meet in Sofia next week to decide second place and the Last 16 berth. On Tuesday, Devin Green paced Lukoil with 22 points, 7 rebounds and 3 steals. Mohamed Abukar picked up 16 points and Darryl Watkins added 14 points and 9 rebounds for the Sofia team. Already-eliminated Spirou dropped to 0-5 in the group despite 14 points from Matt Walsh and 12 from Derrick Allen.

Green scored 10 points as Lukoil grabbed a 4-15 advantage to start the game. Walsh hit 5 straight points to help bring Spirou within 9-15, but Green nailed a three-ball and Abdukar converted a three-point play in a 2-12 Sofia run to close the quarter with a 13-29 lead. Allen scored the first 4 points of the second quarter to cut the gap to 17-29. Brandon Heath answered with 2 three-pointers and Thomas Massamba also hit from long range in a 2-11 surge by Lukoil, pushing the advantage to 19-40. Spirou’s 18-year-old talent Nikola Jankovic scored 4 points as the hosts trimmed the deficit to 27-43. Nonetheless, the guests from Sofia led comfortably, 28-47, at the break.

Spirou scored the first 4 points of the second half as Allen and Andre Riddick worked hard to bring the hosts back into the game, cutting the lead to 38-51. Soon, Justin Hamilton trimmed the gap further, to 42-53. Green answered with a three-pointer to push the margin back to 14 points, but Spirou trailed only 49-60 after Walsh’s three free throws in the final seconds of the third quarter. Jason Fontenet’s basket early in the fourth cut the gap to 52-62 before Lukoil answered with a 2-15 run for a 54-78 lead with just more than 3 minutes to play as the visitors made sure they did all they could this week to keep their season going.