Kevin Wallace and Demetric Reese are team mates, house mates and former university mates.

Both are in their first year in England, both are waiting more in hope than expectation to see if they will still be here next season and both are renowned more for flair than consistency.

Now the two former Maryland students have something else in common. They have both scored 28 points in a game to see Brighton to back-to-back wins.

Last Saturday it was Reese firing them in from all angles against Manchester.

On Friday night Wallace stole the show with an amazing ten out 11 from two point range plus eight from nine at the line to delight a crowd of 750 at The Triangle.

He was run close for man-of-the-match status by Dave Wahl, who hit seven from 11 in open play and took 14 rebounds as Bears dominated off the boards.

The hosts even managed to keep their calm at the death as Bullets threatened to come back from 73-59 down.

Wallace revealed: "We were talking in training on Thursday about closing games out. We knew we had the win but we just needed to calm down, execute and put the game away.

"I was in a slump in the last couple of games but I came out and said 'I'm going to get 20 tonight'.

"We have been putting in the hard work and I knew it would start to pay for us pretty soon. Demetric and I get here before practice in the mornings and work on our shooting."

Bears' jubilant fans have now seen three successive home wins.

They watched their side trail 8-2 early on, then 33-29 in the second quarter before sneaking into a 39-36 half-time lead on the back of Wahl's expertly guided three-pointer.

Despite 20 points from Brant Bailey and an aggressive performance from Yorick Williams, it looked plain sailing for Bears as they went 14 clear with four minutes to play.

Bullets picked up the defensive pressure and had their hosts panicking as they hit back to 78-74 with 50 seconds remaining.

Then Rob Paternostro impeded Wallace off the ball and the top scorer kept his head to sink both from the line and virtually settle the contest. Whether he will be back to take on Bullets next year remains doubtful.

He said: "They have not approached me with anything and I want to have a job next year for the right money. I am just going to finish strong and see what happens."

Reese is in a similar situation. His shooting was off beam for much of last night but he hit some handy points in the final period and had more court time than any other player in the game.

He initially caught Mark Dunning's eye when the Bears coach was watching a tape of a Maryland game which Wallace had sent him.

Reese said: "When Kevin and I came here out of college it took a while to adjust to the pro level. I believe I have now adjusted and I am getting better.

"Now we have got the full team back and fit we know that, if we play hard and use everyone's talents we can finish with at least ten wins. I would like to come back to Brighton but I would not think they would want to bring players back here after such a bad season."

Dunning is delighted to see the pair of them, as well as Wahl, giving valuable support to Michael Brown and Wilbur Johnson.

He said: "That is very encouraging. We need a contribution from all our starters. I am praying this is the start of things to come even though it is late in the season."

He added: "Kevin has had a tough time and this sort of form is what we expect of him. It's not as though he is doing things we did not think he could do.

"Demetric has found a bit of touch and range and we have been shooting the ball a lot in practice. It is nice to see him hitting a few. We brought him in as a capable shooter but he has struggled for a while."

Wallace put it more simply: "Demetric's a gun and we need him."

BEARS: Wallace 28, Wahl 18, Johnson 12, Brown 11, Reese 8, Seaman 4, Hildreth 2.

BULLETS: Bailey 20, Williams 19, Cobbin 13, Etete 10, Paternostro 8, Craven 4, Garcia 2.