EuroCup teams battled but lost in their bid to reach the National Cup Final Four in February 2008.

Khimik Yuzhny and Cherkaski Mavpy, who marched into the semi-finals one season ago, faced greater resistance from their rivals this year and bowed out of the competition.

Khimik lost their quarter-final tie over two legs to Sumykhimprom, who prevailed on aggregate by 18 points. In the second leg, the Yuzhny side played without injured small forwards Melvin Buckley and Sasa Bratic.

The club signed signed Canadian international Olu Famutimi as cover, but he wasn’t able to provide much of a boost.

Nikola Lepojevic had 20 points while Aleksandr Djuric added 14 for Khimik.

“We lost a third game in a row and the main reason is we can’t organize the play under the boards,” said Khimik coach Dmytro Bazelevsky. “We let the rivals grab too many rebounds, especially on defense.

Cherkaski, after falling in the first game to Lvivska Politekhnika 89-59, launched an incredible fightback in the second leg, outscoring Lvivska 47-25 over the final two quarters.

The Mavpy side could have tied it at the end, but Andriy Lebediev shot from the arc with just seconds left and was off target, for a three-point defeat on aggregate.

Fadi El-Khatib, the famous Lebanese international, had 21 points and Martinas Andriukaitis weighed in with 18 and nine rebounds.

“Tonight I saw that my team can play together,” said Mavpy coach Andriy Podkovyrov.

“We still lack understanding but we are on the right road. Unfortunately, we had trailed too much after the first game.

Cup holders BC Kyiv split their two games with Budivelnyk but still qualified after a convincing 106-63 win in the opening game. Budivelnyk won the second contest 86-74.

Azovmash, the runners-up to Akasvayu Girona in last season’s EuroCup, had no problems against Odessa.

They beat them 108-80 away from home and then 154-33 in the return leg.

BC Odessa face Spartak St Petersburg in the elimination round of the EuroCup.