RheinEnergie Koeln proved there is more to German basketball than Alba Berlin with a 61-58 win in front of a season-record crowd of 14,917 at the Koelnarena.

Alba have been running away with the Bundesliga after just two defeats all season but while Koeln can stake a claim to being Germany's leading side in Europe - they are in the EuroCup quarter-finals - their reputation in the Bundesliga was not so clear-cut.

"That was the most important win of the whole season for us," said coach Sasa Obradovic, whose team is now fifth with 13 wins and three defeats.

"We won the mental war."

Nearly 15,000 saw Alba stretch into a nine-point lead at half-time.

But Michael-Hakim Jordan defied tiredness to lead the charge for the home side in the third quarter and his five quick points narrowed the gap.

The real drama was reserved for the final quarter, however.

RheinEnergie tightened up on defence took the lead for the first time with 30 seconds on the clock.

And they didn't throw it away, either, as they did the whole of the Bundesliga a favour in beating Henrik Roedl's side.

GHP Bamberg took advantage of Alba's slip-up to move to within one win of the Bundesliga leaders with an 87-68 triumph over EWE Baskets Oldenburg.

Bremerhaven continue to cause surprises and moved up to joint-third with a 94-78 win over Deutsche Bank Skyliners Frankfurt, a result which means the Bundesliga newcomers are almost certain of a place in the play-offs.

Meanwhile, TBB Trier and EnBW Ludwigsburg strengthened their claims for a play-off place with wins over BS Energy Braunschweig and the Artland Dragons, respectively.

That fourth defeat in a row for the Dragons means they slip to eighth with Telekom Baskets Bonn reviving their hopes of a top-eight finish thanks to an 80-68 win over Sellbytel Baskets Nuernberg.

Braunschweig remain bottom of the league while BG Karlsruhe dropped into the bottom two for the first time by losing 78-72 to the Bayer Giants Leverkusen.