Mark Dunning felt Brighton Bears paid a heavy price for crucial mistakes as Manchester Giants edged past them 74-72 in the National Cup clash at the Brighton Centre.

Giants scraped through right at the death after Bears were controversially penalised for a foul on Julius Joseph.

James Brame was adjudged to have fouled Joseph as he attempted a three-pointer, and the Giants man then coolly hit the first two of three shots from the line to clinch the win.

The outcome was doubly disappointing for Bears, who were seeking to maintain momentum after grabbing their first win of the season 24 hours earlier with a thrilling 93-91 success at Edinburgh.

Admitted coach Dunning "When you analyse the game as a whole you have to look at the poor play and the unnecessary turnovers earlier in the match.

"My guys know that because I tell them. What you have to do is not be super critical about it but learn from it and get better next time.

"I'm really disappointed but even more for the players because they all felt they should have won the game."

Bears' former Sheffield Sharks All-Star Wilbur Johnson had no doubt it was a bad late call on his team and said: "In those situations I don't think the referee should decide the game.

"Unless it's a flat out obvious foul you should just let the players decide the game.

"I didn't think it was a foul from my angle. In my opinion it was a make-up call from one in the first half when I was the beneficiary of a similar call to what happened at the end.

"I hate to blame the referees but I think they took the game from us a little bit. We came out on the short end of the stick."

Controversy surrounded the game from the start with Bears protesting to the EBBA over Manchester fielding their new signing Justin Phoenix.

Former Birmingham player Phoenix was only licenced on Saturday and Bears protested that he was ineligible for the game under the rule concerning validity of National Competition Licences.

Phoenix made a significant contribution to injury-hit Giants by firing a game-high 28 points and pulling down nine rebounds, and Johnson said: "We've just got to suck it up.

"We have to look at this weekend as a positive. We've got our first win under our belt in the League and we are going to get better. I think the fans will see our progression on the court."

Manchester coach Andre Alleyn admitted the gods smiled on his team as they came back from being 71-69 down to clinch victory in disputed fashion.

He said "They usually say there's no such thing as a foul with two seconds left but Julius Joseph was clobbered by two guys. He did a great job in keeping his control at the line with those free throws when it mattered."

Bears, who trailed 54-49 going into the last quarter after being 30-28 down at the break, were 72-71 behind when Tony Holley fired a three-pointer. Michael Brown levelled the scores with one from two at the line after being fouled by Holley before Joseph had the final say.

Brighton's tally of 23 turnovers was unacceptably high and although pleased with his team's spirited comeback, Dunning emphasised "We should have played better earlier in the game."