Nick Nurse saw his Brighton Bears hammer out a warning to their rivals for silverware, then declared: "This team is back in business."

Title-chasing Bears scorched to their biggest top flight win in more than three years as they demolished Essex Leopards 91-60 at the Brighton Centre last night.

It would also have been the heftiest margin anywhere in the league this season but for Sheffield's 33-point thrashing of Newcastle last night as the BBL heavyweights started to flex their muscles.

Headline-grabbing forward Rico Alderson, playing against the club he left last spring, signed off in spectacular style ahead of his three-game ban and this time for all the right reasons.

He added ten rebounds to his 17 points, shot at an impressive 67 per cent success rate from the floor and was even playing peacemaker near the end when his captain Randy Duck confronted Leopards' David Fisher after a foul.

It was a fabulous all round display from the Bears, who had lost four of their previous five matches, as they took a nine-point half-time lead and then blew away their visitors away 26-12 in the third quarter.

Coach Nurse said: "I wasn't necessarily expecting that but I enjoyed it. I liked our defence, it was really solid, and our transition offence was good too.

"Rico has been getting ready all week for this and has been really focussed. We will miss him and it's a challenge to play without him but I still like our chances.

"We have Mike (Brown) stepping in so well, Emiko (Etete) is a quality player and Errol (Seaman) showed signs of what he can contribute.

Nurse added: "This result sends out a message. We had a tough schedule recently and it was rough for us but we are back now."

Bears certainly played with smiles on their faces throughout the evening, backed by a 2,000 crowd which was the most enthusiastic at the Centre so far this season.

Sterling Davis, who will be expected to step up a gear in Alderson's absence, had a superb third quarter in which he scored 14 points, including two threes.

Overall, he shot at seven-from-13 from two-point range and added seven rebounds to his game-high tally of 22 points.

Davis admitted: "I have been going through a bit of a slump but my team have been trying to pick me and encouraging me to keep shooting the ball.

"This is was a really important result for us. We haven't been playing like we were at the start of the season but we picked it up and really enjoyed ourselves. It was good to see Rico doing so well. He is always high spirited but he has been a real asset to us and we will miss him.'

Alderson lit up the first quarter as Bears went on a 13-0 run to lead 23-11. He threw down a dunk after Ralph Blalock's behind-the-back dribble, then pulled off a brilliant spin move and reserve lay-up as he was fouled for a three-point play.

The second period saw Leopards reduce a 15-point gap to just 43-34 at half-time as Duck and Emiko Etete moved to three fouls.

Davis though set the tone with a three at the start of the third and Bears took total control.

In all they hit nine of 21 three-point attempts but even that was overshadowed by their ferocious defensive work and lightning counter raids, one of which saw Wilbur jJhnson dunk from Mike Brown's clever pass.

A couple of late Errol Seaman strikes pushed the lead out to 35 and, though Leopards crept up to the 60 mark with 12 seconds to go, Bears had made their point loud and clear.

Bears: Davis 22, Alderson 17, Johnson 15, Blalock 13, M. Brown 8, Duck 8, Etete 4, Seaman 4.

Leopards: R. Brown 16, Sanders 10, Ogunjimi 9, Attewell 6, Williams 6, Fisher 5, McIntosh 4, Yabslev 2, Webster 2.