BC Donetsk kept its Last 16 hopes alive with a 64-71 victory at PBC Lokomotiv Kuban on Wednesday. The result gave Donetsk a potential tiebreak advantage over Lokomotiv Kuban, however Lokomotiv still controls its destiny. Donetsk improved to 2-3 and will advance if it wins and Lokomotiv loses next week, but in any other scenario, Lokomotiv, now 3-2, goes through. This game was close and saw both teams take encouraging leads only for the opposition to storm back. The decisive run was for Donetsk, which outscored Lokomotiv 3-18 during a stretch in the fourth quarter to take a 56-65 lead. D’or Fischer scored 12 points and grabbed 13 rebounds for Donetsk, while Ivan Radenovic also posted a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds as the visitors outrebounded the hosts 36-42. Ramel Curry and Darius Songaila added 12 points each and Vojdan Stojanoski 10 for Donetsk. Jimmy Baron led Lokomotiv with 18 points, Nick Calathes added 12 points and 10 rebounds and Derrick Brown scored 10 in defeat.

Donetsk won the opening tip and scored first through Oleksandr Lypovyy on a three-chance possession. The visitors dominated the opening stretch as Radenovic added 4 more points as Lokomotiv was held scoreless for more than four minutes en route to a 0-8 start. Spartak turned things around through Aleks Maric and Brown inside before a Calathes triple made it 7-10. Soon after Calathes tied the game from the line and Simas Jasaitis’s tip in capped a 10-0 Lokomotic charge to make it 12-10. However Denys Lukashov left Donetsk ahead 12-14 after 10 minutes. The teams traded baskets in the early part of the second half until Calathes evened the score at 19-19. After Stojanovski boosted Donetsk, the hosts came through with 9 unanswered points to tie the score at 23-23 on Maxim Grigoryev free throws and zip ahead on an Andrey Zubkov triple. Calathes stretched the lead to 33-27 with a three-pointer to end the half.

Maysym Pustozvonov fueled the Donetsk return with a basket-plus-foul in the midst of a 0-8 run to make it 35-37 early in the third quarter. Calathes responded with a three-point play as the hosts regained the lead, but Pustozvonov scored the next baskets as the lead began to seesaw. Grigoryev lifted Lokomotiv to 44-41, Pustozvonov drew the visitors back within 1 and Brown finished the quarter for Lokomotiv at 48-45. A three from Baron and a dish from Savrasenko to Brown for a slam made it 53-47 early in the fourth, but four different Donetsk players scored in a 0-8 response as the visitors took the lead on a bucket by Fischer. A triple by Baron made it 56-55, but the visitors were just getting heated up. Fischer put Donetsk ahead and Currey reeled off 8 points by himself – including a pair of threes – and the Donetsk lead shot to 56-65 with just under two minutes to play. Lokomotiv tried to rally and closed to 61-67 thanks to a layup and three by Baron, but baskets by Stojanovski and Curry secured the win for Donetsk in the final 30 seconds.