Bears' coach Nick Nurse hailed one of his sides most crucial wins of the season as Leopards were silent again on their home court last night.

This was Brighton's fourth win out of four over their southern conference play-off rivals and the third at Leopard's Essex home.

The result put Bears back on course after their slightly concerning sequence of three straight defeats as they look forward to Saturday's summit meeting with London Towers at the Triangle.

Victory was never in doubt once Bears had wiped out an early 14 point deficit and Nurse admitted: "That's as big a win as we have had all year.

"It was a huge game for us. We had our backs to the wall a little bit and decided to step up and play.

"It certainly wasn't easy. They came out at us like game-busters but we looked like our old selves again."

Albert White again led all scorers but there were powerful performances throughout the starting five, as well as from Rodger Farrington who is proving a real asset to his new side.

Randy Duck provided a little payback with his triple double, which included 11 rebound and ten assists. The last time Bears' fans saw such a feat was by Leopards' Rico Alderson at the Brighton Centre last season.

Sterling Davis and Mike Brown added seven boards apiece while big Wilbur Johnson througrly enjoyed his battles close to the rim.

Just like on their previous visit to Brentwood, Bears made a horrendous start, despite Mike Brown opening the scoring with a three-pointer.

They then committed every attacking error in the book and fell 19-5 behind, but some superb work by Davis and two more threes from Brown, including a fabulous falling away shot on the buzzer, took them into the break just 25-20 adrift.

Nurse made his first changes of the game at that interval as Farrington and Errol Seaman joined the fray.

Tougher defence close to the rim, notably by Johnson and Farrington helped Bears fightback to just 35-34 down.

Nurse was less impressed, though, when those two players then tried wildly optimistic three-point shots early in the 24-second clock.

An 8-2 run edged Bears ahead but Jason Kimbrough replied from in the corner and, when the officials ruled out an Albert Wight tip-in on the buzzer, it meant the hosts had a 43-42 advantage at half-time.

The visitors wiped that out in style as they took the third quarter 29-10 and put the game virtually beyond their hosts' reach.

Johnson drew two fouls off Martin Henlan which temporarily sent the Leopards centre to the bench and Davis produced more strong work to keep the scoreboard ticking over.

Typically though it was White who topped it off with some flamboyant touches, including an extravagant assist to Davis and a fabulous move past the hapless Henlan, followed by a dunk and a little celebration in front of the jubilant travelling fans.

The best run of the quarter was an 11-0 sequence but it was not a case of shortlived scoring bursts.

Instead ten minutes of control stood Nurse and his men in good sted, both for the formality of the final quarter and the test from Towers which now looms large.

Scorers - Bears: White 27, Davis 18, Brown 15, Farrington 12, Duck 10, Johnson 10, Jackson 2.

Leopards: Kimbrough 17, Brown 17, Alderson 15, Robinson 8, Dantzler 7, Henlan 4, Millar 3, Attewell 2.