By Gianni Pintus, PA Sport

Virtus Bologna coach Zare Markovski has every reason to believe his players can mount a serious challenge for honours in Lega A after watching them destroy TDShop.it Livorno in the fourth quarter of their showdown on Sunday en route to a 94-75 triumph.

Trailing 65-63 near the end of the third quarter, Guilherme Giovannoni's two free throws tie the game and sparked a 19-2 run that left everyone in the Pala Malaguti stunned.

Christian Drejer buried a three-pointer and added another basket to make it 70-65, and after Paul McPherson scored for Livorno, Ilievski struck from long range.

They ended up outscoring Livorno 29-10 in the final quarter.

Ilievski finished the game with 18 points and Drejer weighed in with 16.

Virtus, who are also in the EuroCup Final Four where they will meet Azovmash, have now won consecutive games in Lega A after a three game losing streak that had sent alarm bells ringing.

"During the game we improved on defense and the attack," Markovski said.

"After that, we succeeded in the rebounds situation, and we were able to counterattack and in the (fourth) quarter our shooting from three-point range was quite outstanding.

"Also, Livorno lost the intensity they had at the beginning, then we succeeded to close the game."

Virtus shot a phenomenal 47.6% (10 of 21) and they out-rebounded Livorno 34-27.

The result left Markovski's men alone in second place with Armani Jeans Milano losing their game at Angelico Biella to fall to third.

"I'm very happy how we played for the first 33 minutes," said Livorno coach Sandro Dell'Agnello, "but sadly, the last seven has been played badly by us

"We put forth a great effort to stay in the game, but in the end, Bologna were too good for us.

"We tried to stay with them as long as we could, but their best players made the difference in the last quarter."