Ralph Blalock celebrated his return to fitness with what could prove to be the most important basket of Brighton Bears' British League title bid.

Blalock, playing with a painkilling injection in a toe injury, came up with a superb spin move and shot off his left hand to force overtime with his side just 7.8 seconds from a fourth successive defeat.

The hosts, who had trailed by four going into the final minute, then made a high powered start to the extra period, firing seven unanswered points which just about saw them through.

Arguably the most scrappy match since Nick Nurse took over at Brighton hardly deserved such a memorable finish but the value of the two points was not lost on the coach as his side avenged overtime defeat on the same court by Towers two months ago.

Nurse declared: "That's a big win. It could have gone either way and we're fortunate we won but the race is on now.

"Our defence is still tough and I'm excited about the title race."

"Losing that one would have hurt us but we are right in there and we've got three games in four days over next weekend which will be interesting."

Any team which can win despite shooting at 43 per cent from two-point range, 22 per cent from outside the arc and missing seven of their 16 free throws must have something going for them.

Offensively though, Towers were no better, resulting in paltry scorelines of 14-14 at the first break and 25-24 to the visitors at half-time.

Bears shaded the rebound count 53-49, led by 12 from Rico Alderson, helping them come up with 21 second-chance points to just six by Towers.

A flurry of early technical fouls and some aggressive defence partly accounted for the ugly nature of the game but the closing stages will stick in the memory.

Two successive three-pointers from Mike Brown gave Bears a 44-42 lead to take into the fourth quarter and they were back in front at 54-53 when Wilbur Johnson rammed home a Blalock miss with 2:12 to go.

Towers then produced a 7-2 run, capped by Shaheen Holloway's three from the left corner to put them 60-56 up with 61 seconds to play.

Johnson replied with two free throws, Alderson grabbed a steal on Towers' next raid and Blalock's trademark spin away from his marker made room for a carefully guided leveller.

Towers might still have nicked it but the home defence made Holloway take the scenic route on his last drive and he ran out of time to shoot.

If Blalock's saver was a huge play, so was Brown's opening to overtime, guiding in a shot via the backboard as the 24-second clock expired.

Another superb Blalock move and an unlikely and-one from Alderson under extreme pressure opened a 67-60 gap.

Alderson's free throw made it 70-63 57 seconds from time but a series of home errors, plus a Sammy Salter three, put Towers back in the game.

It was 70-68 when Blalock went to the line with 11.2 seconds on the clock.

He missed the first but hit the second, leaving Towers time for a hit-and-hope by John O'Connell which was way off target.

Blalock said: "We were the better of two sluggish teams. We will take any win we can get but hopefully our performances will get a lot better.

"We shouldn't have been in that position at the end but we kept our composure like a Championship team should do."

Randy Duck is being lined up for court time at Leopards on Friday or Birmingham at the Triangle the following night.

Two more big tests for Bears, as will be the visit of Newcastle a week today, but at least they are still in there fighting.

Bears: Brown 16, Blalock 14, Johnson 14, Alderson 14, Davis 11, Seaman 2.

Towers: Warren 21, Holloway 20, Dixon 8, O'Connell 7, Youngblood 6, Salter 3, Craven 2, Robbins 1.