Andrew Alleyne is ready to open talks aimed at bringing him back to Brighton Bears for a third season.

The 6ft 8ins West Indian signed off in home action with a double-double as Bears went down to resurgent London Towers on Saturday.

Alleyne will be heading home for a first glimpse of his baby daughter Destiny, who was born in February, when Bears' play-off campaign ends.

He insists, though, that fatherhood will not necessarily mean an end to his days working overseas and he is ready to return to Brighton.

Alleyne, who maintained his 20-point-per game average and added 12 rebounds, said: "I think I've got a couple more years of playing at a high level.

"I would love to play over here. I like it in England, especially in Brighton.

"We've got good fans, the people are good people and the city's a good city.

"I haven't discussed it with Nick (Nurse) as yet. The season isn't over. After the play-offs we'll probably talk about it.

"The last few weeks have been tough. A couple of months ago we were probably the best team in British basketball.

"All in all it wasn't the season we expected. We could have won all four trophies but we got a couple of injuries.

"But I'm not going to retire."

Unlike Mrs Alleyne with the new-born in Barbados, Bears' players need not suffer sleepless nights after this latest home defeat.

They were out-gunned and under-manned, with Tony Holley's swollen ankle meaning he sat out for the first time this season, but kept pride intact with their effort against Towers' lavishly-assembled line-up.

Towers look like they could have the weapons to end their three-year wait for silverware, though it will be interesting to see whether their excellent recent form extends into the high-pressure play-offs.

They made ten of 21 three-point attempts in a relaxed atmosphere at the Triangle, with Rod Brown going five-for-nine and Sullivan Phillips three-for-four.

Their transition work was lightning fast, both in creating easy lay-ups for the likes of Jerry Williams and in getting back when they lost possession.

Steve Lepore made three of six three-point attempts for Bears, Ronnie Baker converted all seven of his free throws and Ajou Deng grabbed rebounds at will. Add Holley, Yorick Williams and either Ryan Huntley or Cheyne Gadson to the line-up and Bears might have had a chance.

The contest was over when Niki Arinze's and-one opened a 15-point lead. Depressingly for Bears, that was after just 14 seconds of the second quarter.

Towers led by 21 at the half and by 28 midway through the third but Bears won the last two periods to get arrears back to 16.

That might not sound like much to get excited about but the effort they put in was worthy of praise.

Bears coach Nurse said: "We could have rolled over but we talked at half-time and decided we didn't want people feeling sorry for us.

"We stopped turning the ball over and we battled them as well as we could.

"The game was meaningless but the way we played it was meaningful."

l Bears completed their league campaign with a morale-boosting 93-78 victory at Birmingham last night.

Steve Lepore led the way with 17 points as Bears broke a four-game losing streak. Bears pulled away in the third quarter with a 15-2 burst to establish a 62-49 lead.

Chester Jets sealed the title with a 97-74 victory over London Towers last night.