PORTO (Basketball Champions League) – Never-say-die Juventus Utena surged over FC Porto in the final stretch of their Tuesday clash to grab an 83-81 win and hand the Portuguese champions the task of overturning the two-point deficit in the second leg of their Qualification Round 2 tie if they want to advance to the Regular Season of the Basketball Champions League.

Utena were the first team to make some meaningful progress in a very tight clash midway through the second quarter and managed to build a 10-point lead shortly after the start of the third period. Porto however fought their way back to balance proceedings and re-gained the lead, 77-75, with 4:53 left to play.

Jamar Diggs however found two easy points on the fast break to tie the scores and Gytis Sirutavicius poured in four points in quick succession to lift the visitors to an 81-77 lead with two minutes remaining, but a triple almost at the buzzer by Bradley Tinsley cut the gap to two points.

Utena will be thankful for their long-range shooting prowess on Tuesday night as they went 8-for-17 from dowtown while Porto only converted 8-of-29 three-pointers and that ultimately made the difference.

Aaron Best paved the way for Utenas with 18 points on a superb 8-of-10 from the floor while Sirutavicius finished with 17 points. Tinsley had a game-high 19 points for Porto in defeat.