MIES (Switzerland) - Defending champions Telekom Baskets Bonn are just one win away from reaching another Basketball Champions League Final Four. They took a 1-0 lead over Peristeri bwin with a 89-78 win at home, while UCAM Murcia defeated MHP RIESEN Ludwigsburg 98-72. in Spain.

The game in Germany was a much closer than the one in Murcia.  Bonn went back and forth with Joe Ragland and the rest of Peristeri team, who arrived in town riding a seven-game winning streak in all competitions.

It stopped at seven however, because coach Roel Moors had an inspiring team talk in the locker room at halftime. Whatever he told his players worked like a charm, as Bonn won the third stanza by 12 points and kept Peristeri at bay, never allowing Ragland to get into his flow.

 
Bonn had four players in double figures. Sam Griesel played his best basketball of the season, getting 19 points on 9-of-9 from the charity stripe. Noah Kirkwood scored 17, while Till Pape had an efficient role off the bench with 15 points.

But the best player on the court for Bonn was easily their motor, Glynn Watson. With 13 points and 9 assists in 22 minutes, the backup point guard fueled the reigning champions to a 1-0 series lead in the Quarter-Finals.

Coach Vassilis Spanoulis saw Elijah Mitrou-Long contribute 22 points, while Jermaine Love was also in double digits with 13, but Bonn held Ragland to just 9 points and 6 assists. When you add Peristeri's 7-of-15 shooting from the line, there was no possibility of an upset.

 
Meanwhile, the other German team stood no chance on the day. Murcia defeated Ludwigsburg by 27, dominating throughout, from a 27-14 lead after the first quarter all the way to their largest lead of the night,  94-66 with 90 seconds left to the final buzzer.

Rodions Kurucs led five men in double digits with 18 points while getting all eight of his field goal attempts to drop. Marko Todorovic had 16, Troy Caupain 14, Nemanja Radovic 11, and Dustin Sleva rounded up the double digit group with 10.

Jayvon Graves scored 16 for Ludwigsburg, but shooting 7-of-27 from beyond the arc will never get the job done against a tough team like Murcia.

 
These two series now move to Greece and Germany, respectively. Peristeri will play host to Bonn on Wednesday, while Ludwigsburg await Murcia on Tuesday.

The winners of the best-of-three series will advance to the Final Four.