Nick Nurse has told his Brighton Bears to prepare for a tense run-in as they chase the three wins they now need to clinch the title.

Bears emerged from Milton Keynes with an 86-84 win last night after home hotshot Joel Burns missed a three-point attempt on the final buzzer.

It was a fraught finale for Bears who led 79-65 and were cruising when Yorick Williams hit his fifth three-pointer of the game with seven mins 27 secs to play.

Milton Keynes then went on a 14-1 run and misses in the last 42 seconds by Sullivan Phillips and Andrew Alleyne gave the hosts their chance to snatch a shock win.

Coach Nurse had a lengthy chat with his players after the game. He said: "The easy wins are done. We are still showing great signs to get up like we did in the two weekend games but we've got things to iron out."

Bears, who will definitely be without skipper Randy Duck for the rest of the season, gave themselves another handicap by going 10-0 down inside two minutes.

Some decent outside shooting gave them leads of 22-19 at the quarter and 48-43 at the half.

John O'Connell changed that with two threes in the first minute of the second half but again Bears had the answer, Mike Brown striking from long range to spark a 10-2 run.

Williams then took over for a while, hitting three successive free throws, adding a three-pointer and then seeing Jason Siemon convert his failed long-range effort into a three-point play by forcing home the loose ball as he was fouled.

That made it 71-61 at the final break but any thoughts it would be easy from then on were soon dispelled.

Top scorers - Bears: Williams 20, Warren 15, Alleyne 13, Brown 11, Siemon 11, Alderson 9, Phillips 7. Milton Keynes: Burns 26, Jamison 23, Rivers 18.