Rhein Energie Köln beat Telekom Baskets Bonn 81-70 to record their fourth straight Bundesliga win and move them into the top five for the first time this season.

As is often the case in the Rhein derby, there was no lack of aggression and that helped the home side to a 22-15 lead in the first quarter.

Strong defending from Immanuel McElroy and Nikola Vucurovic kept the Bundesliga's top-scorer Andrew Wisniewski quiet while Glen McGowan grabbed 19 points to give the home side a 19-point cushion at the interval.

Bonn reacted well at the start of the third quarter and Wisniewski began finding the gaps that he had been exploiting all season.

A 13-0 run brought the Baskets to within eight points of their visitors which had Köln coach Sasa Obradovic fuming.

"I'm only a bit happy, with the result of course, but not with our performance in the third quarter," he said.

"We were too much relaxed and seemed to implode."

The accent was placed once again on tough defending and Bonn increasingly came up against a brick wall with McElroy winning six defensive rebounds as the home side kept the gap to 10 points.

This they were able to hold in the final quarter to claim an 81-70 lead at the buzzer and take the win.

"That was a fantastic advert for basketball," Köln director of sport Stephan Baeck told the club's website.

"We wanted to win at all costs and were able to do so with a strong performance and a lot of will," added Obradovic.

"We are always dependent on our defence and we win games if it is strong."