Billy Mims thanked Brighton Bears for taking it easy on his side, then told them: "You can still win this league."

Bears gave their bench men ample time to impress as they sent Mims's Leicester Riders to a 34th defeat in 35 outings.

Rico Alderson, Mike Brown and Wilbur Johnson were given little more than half a game apiece as they got Friday night's numbing defeat with Sheffield out of their systems.

Ralph Blalock sat the contest out entirely while Bud Johnston and Errol Seaman had 21 minutes each and Jason Medford and Ollie Roche enjoyed rare court time.

Bears will take the title if they can win their last five games, including next Sunday's return with the leaders, and Mims insists they can do it.

He said: "Brighton have good chemistry, they have good athletes, tremendous shooters and, in Ralph, the best all-round player in the league.

"Remember they have had Randy Duck out, Ralph out and Emiko Etete is still not playing. No other team would still be fighting for the title having had all those injuries.

"They are the best team in the league, not just this season but probably since the team I had at Leopards in 1997 and 1998.

"I know they lost to Sheffield on Friday but I thought they were screwed in that one.

"We are trying to make this game as professional as we can, then you get a team like Sheffield turn up over an hour late for a game.

"I've seen that team be late for other games. In a fair professional situation they would have been penalised and Brighton would have won that game."

Mims reckoned Sheffield should have been handed four technical fouls at the start of the game, giving Bears the chance of an instant six-point lead.

Threadbare Leicester could have done with a similar head start on Saturday, though they were pleased to avoid another thrashing.

Mims added: "We are easy pickings and Brighton could have kept their best five or six players in the game as long as they wanted to keep on scoring.

"Instead they decided they didn't have to make that statement. They gave all their guys good court time and that could turn out to be more beneficial.

"When I saw them throw Bud on in the first quarter I turned to my assistant and said 'That's class'."

Bears coach Nick Nurse admitted it was good to get back to the Brighton Centre less than 24 hours after the Sheffield game and score a routine win.

He said: "Sometimes you just get beat and you have to forget about it. I was disappointed though in the whole thing as far as Sheffield showing up so late.

"I'm not saying it affected the result but it was unprofessional on their part and ridiculous.

"Their fans made it, I had friends from Birmingham travel down and everybody else was here on time."

He added: "If we get Ralph back to playing I don't see any reason why we won't go up there and win next Sunday but we've got to win two more games before that."

Bears fly north on Wednesday to tackle Scottish Rocks, then host Milton Keynes on Saturday at the Triangle before the Sheffield re-match.

Saturday's win was a low key interlude between those big games but a crowd of about 1,800 enjoyed a few highlights.

Alderson connected with all four of his three-point attempts and threw down a couple of dunks to go with 19 rebounds.

Duck's ten boards gave him a double-double and Seaman completed an and-one after just one second of court time in another decent contribution.

As for Johnston, he is showing there is more to his game than long range shooting.

He only hit two of nine from outside the arc but showed great confidence in running the offence, drove through the key for his opening points and gave a great assist to Duck after a block by Sterling Davis in the best play of the night.

Bears led 55-40 at the half and by 21 points at various stages of the second half before Riders ended the game with a 9-0 run.

Kenya Capers and, more especially, Chris Webber, caught the eye for them.

For Bears' leading names, however, this was just a warm-up for the week that could yet make their season.

Bears: Alderson 24, Duck 19, Brown 14, Johnson 14, Davis 11, Johnston 10, Seaman 7, Medford 3.

Leicester: Webber 26, Capers 22, Porter 15, Winn 11, Lawson 6, Renton 5, Hurrell 4, Passmore 3.