Brighton Bears must go back to the drawing board for next weekend's double header away at Manchester and Sheffield.

Especially after arch rivals Thames Valley Tigers put them in their place again at the Bracknell Sports Centre.

Tigers' convincing 104-84 victory condemned coach Mark Dunning's team to their tenth consecutive defeat and they are now eight points adrift at the bottom of the Southern Conference.

Bears last experienced victory seven weeks ago, one of only three wins in 22 games, and although there are still 19 championship matches remaining, it is hard to see the club make a realistic challenge for the play-offs.

The type of spirit Bears need to turn the corner was once again shown by veteran centre Wilbur Johnson, who led their scoring with 28 points despite an Achilles problem which caused him to miss a week's training.

Disappointingly for Bears they turned the ball over 22 times, Tigers cashing in to score 33 points as a result, while Brighton managed only six points from Tigers' 11 turnovers.

Free throwing was another source of dismay for Dunning as Bears hit only nine of 22 for an unacceptable 41 per cent. Dave Wahl made only five of 14 attempts.

Bears did manage to out-rebound Tigers by 45-40 while they shot 49 per cent from the floor to 46 per cent.

Thames Valley crossed over with a 59-35 advantage and the game was in the bag for them as they went into the final quarter 84-65 ahead.

Thames Valley Tigers: McCord 34, Meldrum 27, Jackson 18, Christie 14, Scantlebury 5, Mackay 5, Redd 1.

Brighton Bears: Johnson 28, Reese 22, Wahl 19, Wallace 9, Brame 3, Hildreth 3.

- Andy Arlidge