It was dramatic, it was colourful, it was richly entertaining and it was spiced with controversy.

In fact, it was everything fans have come to expect from Brighton Bears and the best basketball show in Britain.

Only this time there was a difference. This time it came from the champions of the British League.

No doubt about it, Bears certainly clinched the title in style before their home fans at the Brighton Centre.

They ran out to a backdrop of indoor fireworks, they made light of the absence of Kendrick Warren and Randy Duck on court and coach Nick Nurse on the sidelines to thrash Leicester 106-57, then they heard the team they had beaten by 50 the previous week, Chester, had won at second-placed Sheffield.

Cue a major celebration as league chief Mike Smith presented the trophy to team captain and stand-in coach Duck.

One by one, all Duck's colleagues stepped forward to receive their medals.

Well, not quite all of them. As the party started, Rico Alderson was sitting in the changing room, having been ejected 57 seconds from time for his reaction to a needless punch thrown by Leicester's Chris Webber, who was also sent out.

For a few moments, that flashpoint and the scuffle that followed looked like it might sour the club's first league title since 1993.

Eventually order was restored and, as Sullivan Phillips grabbed the ball a few seconds from time and ran down the clock, the countdown was on to Bears' crowning moment.

As the players stepped up to receive their medals, none received a bigger cheer than Mike Brown, the longest serving member of the team.

Even that roar was nothing compared to the acclaim for Nurse as he waved the trophy triumphantly towards the crowd.

Bears were at rock bottom when Nurse took over as coach less than three years ago.

Fitting then that they should win the title on their own court and against Leicester, the side who beat Bears in Nurse's first game as coach back in September 2001.

Bears' rise to power since then has not been smooth. They have narrowly lost out on league titles in the last two seasons, but that was all forgotten as the silverware was handed out on Saturday.

Brown said: "It's long awaited. I look back over my nine years in England and just think 'It was worth it'.

"I've been at Brighton for five years and had three years with Nick. He knows the type of player he wants and we've built and built and I'm over the moon to have the championship.

"We had slip-ups, like the Trophy final and then losing to Scottish Rocks, but sometimes good teams need to be knocked down once to realise that they have to play well every night, regardless of whether it's against a scrub team or a top team."

Andrew Alleyne, another of the successes of the season, added: "With the squad we've got, our goal from the beginning was to win the league.

"We've got people who have been around before so we know to rebound from losses. Last Saturday we lost to Rocks, then we went to Chester and won by 50. We know how to win games."

They certainly knew far too much for Leicester.

Warnings beforehand that Bears might make a cagey start were forgotten as they scored the opening 12 points, led 21-9 after ten minutes and were out of sight at 46-28 when Alderson's dunk rounded off the first half.

A delayed tip-off gave time for score updates to filter through from Sheffield, where Chester were down by just three at the quarter and two at the half.

Then, as Yorick Williams hit the fifth of his six three-pointers late in the third quarter, came news that Jets had taken a six-point lead.

As Bears finished their bit of the job with a flurry of alley-oops, no-look passes and showtime plays, the courtside commentary team delayed as long they could with the final score from Sheffield.

By the time they announced it, many fans must have guessed what was coming. Sheffield 74, Chester 88. Brighton Bears, BBL champions.

Duck said: "I knew with five or six minutes left Chester had won but I wasn't going to tell the guys.

"The league championship was going to come to us anyway but it's really good we can share it with our fans.

"The guys came out from the very beginning and decided they weren't going to let this game slip by. They did exactly what I asked of them and they did it with passion. I was very, very happy with the effort they gave me."

Duck missed the final weeks of the title push through injury but his efforts on and off the court over the last three seasons should not be under-played.

He said: "I would have loved to have played in that game, It looked a lot of fun, but I'm a part of it in a lot more ways than I thought I would be.

"If you ask any player, they will say the league champions are the best team. I'm a part of the best team in England and I love it."