Kendrick Warren and Mike Brown will have to keep an old sparring partner quiet if Brighton Bears are to score a major ULEB Cup upset tonight.

Bears play Lietuvos Rytas of Lithuania in a group F contest at the Brighton Centre (8pm).

The visitors have won both their group games so far and are spearheaded by former NBA champion Dickey Simpkins.

His match-up with Warren will be a key showdown, while Brown will need to be at his best defensively. Simpkins knows them both well from younger days in the States.

He said: "I played with Mike Brown in college at Providence and I know Kendrick from way back at high school.

"Mike's a strong player who can shoot, a defender and a hard worker. He was younger than me and I kind of taught him the ropes. I'm sure me and Kendrick will be matched up against each other. It should be a good game."

Talk from the Lithuanian camp is that defeat in England will be seen as a national disgrace and Simpkins said: "We're trying to win as many games as we can on the road because that's the sign of a champion team."

Bears are in great heart after their win at Sheffield, though they have a question mark over centre Dave Morgan, who hurt his knee in a training yesterday.

Sullivan Phillips said: "If we come out with the effort we showed at Sheffield, they might beat us but we will give them a good show."