Estudiantes drew first blood in their bid to reach the EuroCup Final Four by dominating on the boards against Dynamo Moscow Region on Tuesday.

The Russians led the opening game of the quarter-final tie by as many as nine points in the first quarter but were unable to press home the advantage in Madrid, where Estudiantes ultimately won 80-70.

Estu out-rebounded their visitors by an eye-popping 46-22.

Hernan Jasen was the best in that department for the home side with nine.

Estudiantes have shown great fight this season after struggling in Spain with a series of defeats seeing them tumble down the table.

They have played much better of late under recently appointed coach Mariano de Pablos.

As has often been the case in his impressive career, American Marlon Garnett hit a very big three-pointer.

On this occasion, it gave his team a 32-30 lead with 4:50 remaining in the first half and they kept their noses in front for the remainder of the game.

Estudiantes were unable to pull away for a comfortable win, however.

After a basket by Caio Aparecido Silveira Torres extended their lead to 67-59 with just under seven minutes to go in the contest, Dynamo fought on and closed to 72-69 with 1:55 to play on a jumper from Roderick Blakney.

What followed was a pivotal play by Estu's Gonzalo Martinez.

The 1.80m guard made a jump shot and was fouled, allowing him to go to the stripe where he completed a three-point play.

Andrey Komarovskiy was off target with a three-ball for Dynamo and the Russians had to foul Estu, who made five free throws in the final minute to seal the victory.

Nikita Morgunov proved to be Dynamo's biggest weapon on offense, scoring 20 points with much of the damage coming from three-point range where he was a hugely impressive four of five (80%).

For Estudiantes, it was a balanced scoring attack led by Sergio Sánchez Cardenas' 13 points that saw them to victory.