MADRID (Basketball Champions League) - Movistar Estudiantes made quick work of SIG Strasbourg on Tuesday night, opening up a 21-point half-time lead and cruising to an 81-65 triumph.

Sparked by Sylven Landesberg's 8 points, the Madrid team led 22-13 after one quarter and with Edgar Vicedo drilling three 3-pointers in the first half, Estu were in command at the break and then went in front by 26 in the third quarter.

SIG, clearly out of sync after the holiday break, made a run midway through the fourth quarter and cut the deficit to 13 points but got no closer.

With the win, Salva Maldonado's team improved to 6-4 while SIG fell to 5-5 in a tightly packed Group C.

"We had a good game today, a great first half with defense, rhythm, everything," Estu coach Maldonado said. "Our second half wasn't brilliant, but we were good on defense.

"We were in rhythm, not like them (Strasbourg) after their break. We were better and were really happy. We needed this win."

Estu have a game at Petrol Olimpija next week, followed by a clash with medi Bayreuth on January 23. 

"The most important thing now is winning," Maldonado said. "We think we can do it, but we'll see during the games."

We had like 14 days without a game, and sometimes it's hard to find a rhythm. Maybe that's why we started bad. We need to look forward and try to win the next couple of games.Strasbourg center Miro Bilan

David Logan poured in 14 points for Strasbourg, who know they are going to be in a dogfight to finish in the top four and reach the playoffs.

"It seems to me they were three times quicker than us," SIG center Miro Bilan said. "We had like 14 days without a game, and sometimes it's hard to find a rhythm. Maybe that's why we started bad. We need to look forward and try to win the next couple of games."

"The first half was only one direction," Strasbourg coach Vincent Collet said. "Their energy was so much better than ours."

"Everything is very important," the coach added, looking ahead to the coming games. "We still have to win big games to have a chance to qualify.

"In this group, you have four or five teams that can go all the way. This is the most difficult group but we still want to do it and we'll try. I'm sure we'll be much better."