Brighton Bears are edging towards another semi-final, but they could have put the matter beyond doubt.

Nick Nurse's made it two wins from two in their BBL Trophy group and took a precious 11-point advantage over rivals Thames Valley Tigers in the head-to-head.

With both teams expected to do the double over lower division Plymouth, this match-up is effectively a two-legged quarter-final.

That means that, when the sides lock horns again before Christmas, Tigers will need to win by 12, the margin by which they saw off Brighton earlier this season.

Having gone 17 points up on a dunk by the outstanding Sullivan Phillips,with 2mins 28secs to play, Bears will feel they should have given themselves more of a cushion for the return.

Especially with Tigers' influential playmaker Nick Moore ruled out by a knee injury.

Having said that, Nurse might have been glad of any sort of advantage for long periods of a messy, stop-start contest.

The Bears chief said: "That's not a good result on the face it it. They played on Saturday, Moore was out and we had a big lead, but us giving six points back in the last minute typifies the night.

"We were not very smart all night long. Mentally it was bad."

Nurse was so disgusted that, at one stage in the second quarter, he gave the briefest of timeout team talks, then sent his players onto court early to wait for Tigers and mull things over.

Bears took the next three rebounds after that but it was not until a lively fourth quarter, which included a 12-2 run, that they really came to life.

Nurse added: "I think we played harder after that timeout but I wasn't overly impressed at all.

"We are supposed to be eliminating those blatantly dumb things we're doing but there were more tonight than we've seen in a long time.

"Just situations where we had great defence going on and we fouled them for no reason.

"I would hope we could go over there and finish the job but Thames Valley are really good in their own gym."

They also did a pretty good job of staying in the tie last night.

Quintin Bailey and Josiah James came up with some key plays and Tony Holley must have used all his experience to remain foul-free until the fourth quarter as battle raged.

Even when Bears did get to the line, they wasted 12 of 21 free throws, including two misses by Yorick Williams with five seconds to play as Tigers scored six of the last eight points.

The stop-start nature of the game kept a big crowd at the Triangle subdued, though there were a few moments to relish.

Rico Alderson led the way with an impressive double-double, which rewarded his huge determination, and some nice combinations with Phillips.

Alderson buried a three-pointer to stretch the lead to 13, reclaimed his own miss to set up Williams for a drive to the hoop and also got on the end of a Phillips assist during Bears' best spell.

Kendrick Warren hit a three as Alderson set the screen, then it was Alderson with a long pass to send Phillips away for his dunk and a promising 91-74 scoreline.

The Birdman also claimed his side's last two baskets, including one from a cheeky steal off Holley under the Tigers' basket.

As for Phillips, he just gets better and better, and not just when leading the full court press.

The tip-in is becoming something of scoring trademark but the reluctant three-point shooter also accepted an open invitation to try his hand from outside and twice hit the target.

Jason Siemon's eyes lit up when he got on the end of a Randy Duck pass for a dunk but it was generally a frustrating night for Bears' big men.

Andrew Alleyne, promoted to the starting five, admitted: "I don't know if we've done enough but the win is the most important thing.

"We didn't really give our best in the first half but I thought we started playing our style of basketball in the third and fourth quarters."

Quarter scores: 18-20, 27-24, 21-19, 30-22.

Bears scorers: Alderson 23, Duck 18, Phillips 17, Warren 12, Alleyne 7, Williams 7, Brown 5, Siemon 4, Gardiner 3.

Thames Valley: James 20, Holley 20, New 16, Bailey 16, Meldrum 10, Gottfried 4.

Rebounds: Alderson 10, Warren 7.

Assists: Duck 7, Phillips 6.

Biggest leads: Bears 91-74 after 17:32, Thames Valley 37-33 after 16:04.