Nick Nurse has told his Brighton Bears to sharpen up or face double defeat.

Bears bounced back from their setback at London Towers by seeing off Newcastle Eagles at the Brighton Centre on Sunday night, led home by skipper Randy Duck and helped by a decisive 15-2 run in the last eight minutes.

They now face a visit from Chester next Saturday before going to Sheffield in the BBL Cup the following afternoon.

Coach Nurse, whose side face a hectic season of domestic and European action warned: "If we don't take it up a notch concentration-wise next weekend we won't win either game.

"I thought we were poor this weekend. We were poor mentally, we took three or four steps backward and that's a bad sign.

"We've got to concentrate. I thought the starting five at Towers were in general pretty bad.

"Mike Brown, Tom Frederick and Phil Perre did nice jobs but other than that the performances were hurtful."

Nurse changed his starting five last night and made frequent substitutions.

He added: "I made a point that I'm not bothered who plays as long they are doing what we want them to do."

Bears overcame a sluggish start to lead by 18 towards the end of a more upbeat second quarter.

Perre did much to lift the tempo, starting the second period with a three pointer, then sparking an 8-0 run.

Duck hit a three pointer late in the shot clock, strong work from Andrew Aleyne close to the hoop gave him a three-point play and Brown struck from the left corner.

All this as Shaun Myers, the man who sent Bears to defeat in the Championship final last May, suffered the torment of six successive misses from the line to the delight of the home crowd.

The third period was more low key from a home point of view, apart from dunks by Kendrick Warren and Rico Alderson, as Eagles got back to 71-65.

Warren though closed the period in style, driving through the key to score as he was fouled, missing the subsequent free throw but grabbing the rebound for two more points.

Eagles got back within six with eight minutes to go but this time Andy Gardiner had the answer with a spin move to spark that late surge before Frederick's dunk and a Bud Johnston three provided a fitting final touch.