There was no belated Christmas present for Bears' long suffering fans after their side slumped to their eighth successive defeat last night.

Bears were poised to end that depressing sequence with 95 seconds remaining at the Brighton Centre when they led Bullets, the side immediately above them in the BBL southern conference, by five points.

A three-point riposte by Yorick Williams punctured the optimism and after Demetric Reese and Daniel Hildreth both gave the ball away in the final minute it needed man-of-the-match Wilbur Johnson to keep his cool by shooting two from the free throw line with less than five seconds on clock to take the match into overtime at 76-76.

But this is a Bears side who seem to have forgotten how to win and Williams sunk two in succession from outside the circle while Bears' first three offensive plays in overtime all resulted in the ball being given away.

In fact all they could manage in the extra five minutes was one basket from the subdued Dave Wahl. Forced to concede fouls as Bullets ran the clock down, Birmingham picked off their hosts from the free throw line.

Bears are now six points adrift at the bottom and while coach Mark Dunning didn't admit as much, even he knows that their play-off dreams are all but over before the turn of the year.

He said: "You can't throw the ball away in your first three offensive plays and expect to win the game. We basically lost the match in that minute.

"I've said it a million times before, the guys have got to learn to execute in those situations and to find ways of getting better.

"Without Mike Brown we lack experience and we're a guy down who is very important to us, but that's not an excuse for tonight.

"It's the same in any walk of life, the players have got to be more efficient at what they do."

If one person didn't deserve to be on the losing side it was Johnson.

He top-scored with 26 points and pulled down ten rebounds but there was little support elsewhere against a Birmingham side who weren't a lot better but who had that extra bit of composure at key moments in the contest.

Bears' shooting was a modest 38 per cent compared to Bullets' 54 while they shot just two out of ten from three point range and were out-rebounded a hefty 52-35.

Yet for spells it looked as if that a crowd of just over 1,000 might witness a rare win for their side.

Bears had the rare luxury of a lead at the end of the first quarter, albeit a slender two-point one, and although Bullets replied with a 13-2 tear in the second the sides turned around level at 37-37.

Bullets led by two going into the final quarter, but the game seemed to have tilted Brighton's way when Bullets' influential guard Brant Bailey fouled out with three minutes left after scoring 23 points and pulling down nine rebounds.

Successive baskets by Reese, Wahl and Johnson helped Bears pull five points clear, but they pressed the self destruct button just when a bit more composure in those closing moments would surely have earned them a rare victory.

Bears: Johnson 26, Wallace 16, Reese 11, Seaman 10, Wahl 9, Hildreth 6.

Bullets: Bailey 23, Garcia 20, Williams 14, Cobbin 11, Craven 8, Paternostro 6, Etete 6.