Estudiantes put their dismal domestic form to one side on Tuesday night as they returned to EuroCup action with a hard-fought victory over Cypriot side DTL EKA AEL Lemesos.

The Spanish side have lost their last seven ACB games, and coach Pedro Martinez admitted after their 92-52 thrashing by Unicaja Malaga at the weekend that his side's morale was hanging by a thread.

But while their form in Spain this season has been, at best, inconsistent, Estu have proved a match for anyone in the EuroCup, winning five of their six games in the opening phase.

And Martinez's side were at it again on Tuesday, beating DTL 70-60 in their opening game of the second round.

It was far from easy for Estu though, and they struggled to get away from their opponents in the first half, building decent advantages at 26 19 and 31-24, only to go into half-time with just a two-point lead at 32-30.

The home side again looked to be gaining the upper hand during the third period, when a Sergio Sanchez Cardenas three-pointer began an 11-3 run that helped Estu edge 54-46 clear.

But still DTL refused to buckle, and they got the score back to 54-50 heading into the final period.

However, just when the match looked set to go to the wire, Estu finally got some breathing space as they scored the opening eight points of the fourth quarter to extend their advantage to 62-50, and that proved to be too big a difference for battling DTL to overhaul in the closing stages.

Estu had decent performances from Brazilian center Caio Torres (14 points and four rebounds), Will McDonald (13 points and six rebounds) and Sanchez Cardenas (12 points, six rebounds and four assists).

For defeated DTL, Milutin Aleksic and Jeron Roberts both contributed 14 points and four rebounds each.