Defending Ukraine champions Azovmash launched their EuroCup challenge in style with a 69-60 triumph in Group C over Banvit of Turkey in Mariupol.

Looking to build on last season's strong performance in this same competition, Sergey Zavalin's men trailed 42-40 early in the third  quarter when Panagiotis Liadellis sparked a 9-0 run that put them in front for the remainder of the game.

Liadellis, a 1.92m guard, buried a jump shot to tie the game, and then Andriy Botichev followed with a jumper of his own.

Liadellis made two more jump shots in the spurt to take his tally to 14 points, and he went on to finish with a game-high 20 points.

Banvit failed to score a single point during that key surge which last six and a half minutes.

The lead ballooned to 62-48 midway through the final quarter but Banvit gave a good account of themselves and fought until the end to lose by just nine.

Liadellis was the man of the our, making eight of his 11 shots from the floor and all four free throw attempts.

He also pulled down seven rebounds.

Italian international Nikola Radulovic was also in excellent form when the game was tight, pouring in 17 points for Azovmash.

Banvit won the rebounding battled 34-32, and then made 17 shots inside the arc just as Azovmash did.

In fact, the major difference in the game was the three-point shooting, with the hosts making eight of 24 (33.3%) compared to five of 19 (26.3%) for Banvit.
 
Marques Perry had 15 points in a losing effort.