BC Kyiv were pushed to the limit by CEZ Nymburk on Tuesday but they finally put paid to the visitors from the Czech Republic to reach the quarter-finals of the EuroCup.

Beaten in last year's final of the FIBA Europe League by Dynamo St Petersburg, Kyiv needed to beat Nymburk to ensure their progress and that was something they did not do earlier in the season.

Nymburk had closed that game on an amazing 23-4 run and then won the game with a three-pointer at the buzzer from Adam Hess.

		LaMarr Greer had a season high 26 points for Kyiv

After Tuesday's victory, Kyiv star Kresimir Loncar admitted: "This was a very tough game for us psychologically."

It was anybody's game with a little more than four minutes remaining. Playing in front of a packed gym, Radoslav Rancik buried a shot from the arc for three of his team-high 21 points as Nymburk, who had trailed by as many as eight in the first half, took a 74-73 lead.

Kyiv then caught fire, though, reeling off 11 straight points.

And it was a mistake by Hess which lit the blue touch paper.

Hess made contact with Guilherme Giovannoni when he was in the act of shooting behind the arc, and the Brazilian went to the line and made three free throws for a 76-74 lead.

When LaMarr Greer, who had a game-high 26 points, connected with a three-pointer of his own just 1:53 from the end, Kyiv led 84-74.

Nymburk were forced to foul and stop the clock, and Kyiv made 10 free throws the rest of the way.

"Keeping in mind our previous three to four mistakes and lost games, we had to be extremely careful today," Loncar said.

"We had lost to Nymburk twice during the last couple of seasons and won only in the fourth overtime.

"This tells us that they are a very strong team."

Renato Pasquali, the Kyiv coach, said: "Technically this was the most difficult game that we had to prepare for since the start of the season.

"I tried not to say too many technical things, but their coach is great and they prepared for the game by trying to break our rhythm.

"And after being 16 points up in Nymburk and losing that game in five minutes, I just told the team that we had to learn how to win.

"I used the video of those five minutes and I showed them why we lost. This allowed us to win against St Petersburg by two points, then in Istanbul and then today."