EUROLEAGUE WOMEN – Shock city as VICI Aistes upset Sparta&K at Kauno Sporto Hale

KAUNAS (EuroLeague Women) - It took only one night of the EuroLeague Women to be played and already there's a major upset.

Four-time defending champions Sparta&K M.R. Vidnoje suffered a last-second, 81-79 defeat at VICI Aistes in Kaunas, Lithuania.

Ausra Bimbaite had 28 points, the most important five coming in the last 33 seconds of the contest.

The Lithuania veteran buried a three-pointer to knot the game at 79-79 and then hit a winning lay-up at the buzzer.

"I checked the odds before the game and saw that we were not expected to win by any means," VICI-Aistes coach Mantas Sernius said.

"But we believed we could win."

The game was played in Kaunas' legendary Kauno Sporto Hale - the same venue that Zalgiris Kaunas won the 1999 EuroLeague title when the owner of the club was Shabtai von Kalmanovic - the former Sparta&K supremo who was shot and killed in Moscow one year ago.

There was another thriller in Prague.

Halcon Avenida edged hosts ZVVZ USK Prague, 66-65, with Spain international Alba Torrens drilling a go-ahead three-ball inside the final minute.

Trailing 63-62, Torrens struck for Avenida and after Greece's Evina Maltsi missed from the arc for Prague, Delisha Milton-Jones grabbed the offensive board only to have the ball stolen by Sancho Lyttle.

Avenida, who won the season-opening Supercopa in Spain over Ros Casares and are also undefeated in the Liga Femenina, held on for victory.

Milton-Jones had 14 points to go with her 11 rebounds in defeat while Torrens finished with a game-high 20 points.

In other games, USO Mondeville defeated Wisla Can-Pack Krakow 76-65, UMMC Ekaterinburg won 87-73 at Gospic Croatia, Galatasaray thumped visiting Tarbes GB, 84-68, Ros Casares prevailed at hosts Nadezhda Orenburg, 76-68, and Bourges won at home over Gorzow, 57-50.

FIBA