Gambrinus Sika Brno held on for dear life to beat MiZo Pecs on the opening night of eighth finals play-off action in the EuroLeague Women.

In one of the best games of the year, one that was close from start to finish, Pecs' Zsfia Fegyverneky tied

Zuzana Zirková was one of the top scorers for Brno with 11 points.

the contest at 61-61 with 2:34 remaining to set up a thrilling finish.

Gambrinus' Timea Ivkovicné Béres replied for the hosts, and all star Eva Viteckova added another jumper for a 65-61 lead with 1:37 left.

Dalma Ivanyi, MiZo's veteran and all-star, drained her fourth three-pointer of the game to close the gap to 65-64, only for Zuzana Zirkova to answer immediately with a three-pointer for Gambrinus.

Pecs refused to give in.

After Ivanyi split a pair of free throws, Emilija Podrug stole the ball away from Hana Machova and buried a jump shot with 18 seconds left to leave MiZo trailing 68-67.

They fouled Viteckova, however, and she made three free throws at the end for the final scoreline.

Ivanyi led all scorers with 15 points in defeat.

Gambrinus struggled shooting the ball on the night.

The home side probably would have won more comfortably had they been able to make their free throws.

They finished  13 of 24 (54%) for the game.

From three-point range, Jan Bobrovsky's team was also ineffective, making just four of 16 (25%).

MiZo out-rebounded their hosts 36-32.

" I knew the quality of our rival, but I didn´t expected so tough a game. We played very nervous and made a lot of mistakes. First play off game in this season was for our players very difficult. Our shooting was very bad and the victory was saved by excellent performances in the last five minutes from Zuzana Zirkova with three shoot of three points. I am disapointed with our defense on Ivanyi and Fegyverneky."

László Ráthbérger (Pécs):

"We played a very good game. We tried to suprise our rival. But Brno had a very good team. I think, today there was only a small difference between both teams. We played in the end very good in zone defence but Zirkova broke this tactic with three attemped for three-points. But our problem is that Brno hadn´t only Zirkova, the other player are very good too."