Virtus Bologna are unbeaten with three wins in as many games after Tuesday's 75-69 victory over CSK-VVS Samara, but don't think for a minute that it's been an easy ride for the Italian giants.

Just as their previous two triumphs were over Base Oostende and Tartu Rock, the game against Valeriy Tikhonenko's Samara went down to the wire with Virtus making the big plays late to prevail.

A pair of Marque Perry free throws gave the Russian team a 67-65 advantage with 2:47 to play.

Former Italy center Roberto Chiacig tied the game at 67-67 for Virtus and then Keith Langford dunked the go-ahead basket before Earl Boykins added a jump shot for a 71-67 lead.

Samara weren't done.

Gennady Zelenskiy cut the deficit to just two points with a lay-up 27 seconds from the end, but Boykins hit another jumper before Perry and Pavel Agapov were off target with jump shots for the visitors.

Chiacig had 16 points and 13 rebounds while Perry scored 19 in defeat for Samara.