Steve Swanson enjoyed a winning debut as Bears head coach and helped his team set up the game of the British League season.

Swanson, taking charge while Nick Nurse served a one-game courtside ban on Saturday, presided over an eventually comfortable 84-73 triumph over a Milton Keynes Lions side who came south fired up to cause an upset.

Lions led by eight in the second quarter and were 38-36 up at the half before being blown away in the third period.

Bears put together runs of 8-0 and 11-3 in that time and finished the quarter in scintillating style, Randy Duck breaking a double-team and handing out one of his seven assists to Wilbur Johnson, who beat the buzzer with a two-handed dunk.

That made it 70-56 and gave Bears sufficient insurance to coast through a scrappy fourth period as they completed an 9-2 won lost record for the season at the Triangle.

Nurse watched from a distance as his assistant was pitched into the firing line.

Swanson admitted: "I haven't had that experience before.

"I've taken over in a few games games where the coach has been thrown out but this was interesting timing given how important this weekend is.

"I was thinking 'This isn't great start' when we were 8-1 down but even then we were doing a lot of things in the press which were working."

Bears employed an energetic full court press for much of the contest and profited with 24 points off turnovers.

Swanson added: "It was a difficult one. This was a big game for our organisation against a team who are in a play-off race of their own but at the same time we didn't want to wear ourselves out."

A clean bill of health was also of prime importance ahead of the Sheffield trip.

Rico Alderson had to be withdrawn in third quarter to stem the bleeding from a gash near his eye.

There were plenty of anxious looks when Sterling Davis went down heavily on his right knee and Errol Seaman sat the game out altogether with a foot injury.

Ralph Blalock though looked in better shape than for a long time, hitting four of five three-pointers, adding four steals and scoring his side's last seven points of the first half, including a trademark spin and fall-away shot.

Just as significant was the sight of Duck attempting a dunk early in the game.

Bears have not seen that in training or games for quite some time and it was a sure sign he was more confident in his physical capacity.

Alderson had a game-high 12 rebounds and the momentum of the contest changed when he and Davis started driving forcefully to the hoop in the third quarter.

The lead peaked at 80-62 when Mike Brown followed up a Blalock miss with 2:05 to play.

Bears: Davis 21, Blalock 19, Alderson 17, Johnson 11, Brown 7, Duck 7, Roche 2.

Milton Keynes: Alleyne 17, Payne 16, Cole 15, Spinks 11, New 7, Baker 3, Irish 2, McCarthy 2.