BANDIRMA (Basketball Champions League) - MHP RIESEN Ludwigsburg handed Banvit their first home defeat of the season in the Basketball Champions League on Tuesday night to claim the upper hand in the two-legged Quarter-Final.

The German club, which led by as many as 15 points but had the advantage cut to just one twice in the fourth quarter, ended up winning 92-87. The second leg will be played in Ludwigsburg on 29 March.

In the red-hot atmosphere of the Kara Ali Acar Spor Salonu, MPH RIESEN did not have Tekele Cotton available but nearly everyone stepped up in his absence, including forwards Kelvin Martin and Drew Crawford.

Both players had season-highs in scoring with Martin pouring in 19 points and Crawford 18.

Cliff Hammonds, normally hailed for his defense, also excelled on the offensive end for John Patrick's team with 13 points and 6 assists.

Patrick believed his MHP RIESEN players handled the high-pressure environment well.

"I have been in basketball for more than 40 years and have never played in a place so loud," he said.

"It was a great atmosphere. (But) It was just the first 40 minutes. The series is long and it's not even close to being over.

"We've got an important game next week. I'm proud of our effort, especially without our starting 3-man. We'll try to finish the series off next week in Ludwigsburg."

MHP RIESEN started strong but didn't begin to open up a big lead until the second quarter.

Hammond's 3-pointer midway through the frame capped a 15-5 run that had the visitors on top, 44-30.

A Crawford basket extended the MHP RIESEN advantage to its largest at 52-37 with 1:30 to go in the first half.

Banvit stayed within striking distance, however, and then had a fourth-quarter scoring spurt of their own that nearly brought them all the way back.

Down 80-70 after Banvit's Furkan Korkmaz and MHP RIESEN's Martin traded 3-pointers, the hosts went down low to get baskets from Damian Kulig and Gasper Vidmar and Gediminas Orelik followed with a 3-pointer from the left corner to trim the deficit to 80-77.

Jordan Theodore then penetrated and handed the ball off to Vidmar, who had a game-high 20 points, for another bucket to close the gap to 80-79.

Thiemann (left) and Vidmar battled all night for their teams

Jack Cooley had his struggles offensively but answered with his first basket of the game.

After Orelik was fouled while attempting a shot from the arc and made 2 of 3 free-throws to again trim the MHP RIESEN lead to just a single point, the visitors went on another run.

Cooley hit a pair of free-throws, Crawford scored with a drive and Cooley again put the ball in to extend the lead to 88-81.

Banvit trailed 90-82 after two Martin free-throws but five shots of their own from the charity stripe pulled them to within just three points.

MHP RIESEN got a final lay-up from the excellent Germany international Johannes Thiemann, who had 17 points, in the waning seconds for a five-point advantage from the first leg.

Theodore, the Turkish Cup MVP, had 18 points and 7 assists.