Brighton Bears produced a super-charged final quarter to pull off their second successive BBL championship victory with a 90-81 home success over Derby Storm.
Bears followed up their opening 71-63 win over London Leopards in encouraging style to leave Derby winless from their opening three games.
Coach Nick Nurse said: "It's been a while since the Bears have had two consecutive wins and this is encouraging for us.
"Derby came and they hustled us but we stuck at it and got the job done.
"It shows we are making progress because the Bears team of last season may not have come through in similar circumstances.
"We've got some really tough games coming up and I'm sure we won't be taken lightly because it is realised the talent level of the team has gone up."
Nurse's men came through a rocky third quarter to make it an unhappy return to Brighton for former Bear Danny Hildreth.
Derby, forced to make do without regular point-guard Jemar Miller due to a knee injury suffered in training this week, were made to suffer as Sterling Davis poured in 27 points to lead all scorers.
Bears were also well served by new signing Albert White who followed up his impressive debut against Leopards by hitting 17 points in another important contribution.
Bears, beaten in eight of their previous nine clashes against Derby, now face Chester Jets in a tough National Cup match on Sunday with increased confidence.
Brighton turned it on to outscore Derby 29-21 in the final quarter at the Brighton Centre after the visitors went into the last period trailing by only one at 61-60.
Davis fouled out with Bears 84-75 ahead, and veteran Wilbur Johnson sealed their win with two lovely dunks before White followed suit at the death.
Bears boasted double figure leads three times in the final quarter and they raised their game after Derby had briefly led midway through the third.
A fine 16-7 run put the visitors 52-49 in front, but Michael Brown responded with a three-pointer and Derby never led again.
Derby, smarting from two defeats in their opening two games, started slowly and Bears were able to capitalise as, aided by a 6-0 run, they opened up a ten point lead at 21-11.
But the hosts added only one more point, a free throw by Davis, and two successive baskets by Storm's Kevin Griffin helped trim Bears lead to 22-17 at the end of the first quarter.
Davis extended his personal tally to 17 as Bears established an 11 point advantage at 37-26 only to go off the boil as half time approached.
Shawn Kennedy and Griffin both nailed three pointers in a 10-2 Derby burst which took John Speiza's team to within three at 39-36.
Brown then promptly doubled his teams advantage by slotting home from long range to record his first points of the quarter.
Bears scorers: Davis 27, Johnson 22, White 17, Duck 13, Brown 12, Jackson 3.
Storm scorers: Robinson 23, Griffin 22, Kennedy 14, Balser 9, Peterson 7, Hildreth 5, Dolby 1.
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