Brighton Bears' problems at the wrong end of the Southern Conference increased when title chasing London Towers pulled off a convincing 89-73 victory at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre.

Bears eighth defeat in the last nine games leaves them routed to the bottom and it gets no easier for Mark Dunning's men with a tough trip to Manchester giants looming on Sunday.

Brighton tackled Towers fresh from their encouraging 74-65 home win over Birmingham Bullits, but London quickly imposed themselves on the game to compound Bears wretched away record.

This was their sixth successive away Championship defeat and they have lost no fewer that 51 of their last 56 road games going back to the start of the 1997/98 season.

Towers led from the first tip to the final buzzer and Bears did not help themselves by shooting only 35% from the floor against 51% by their opponents.

Questionable refereeing decisions contributed to Bears being called for 28 fouls against 15, and coach Dunning was called for a technical foul for a delayed time out with his team 33-22 behind with three minutes left in the second quarter.

Up until the start of the final quarter, when Towers led 72-46, they had only been called for six fouls and although Bears reduced the deficit by outscoring the hosts 27-17 London were by then running their bench.

Americans Barry Bowman and Donnie Johnson put in solid performances for Towers by hitting 18 points each as their team gained their eighth win in the last ten Championship games.

Disappointingly for Bears the shooting percentage from their guards was poor and Jon Gaines, Michael Brown and Lormont Sharp combined to make only 13 off 49 shots.

Towers, who turned the ball over 20 times to 12, produced an 11-0 run in the first quarter to lead 22-9, and they had a 12-0 tear in the next period to take it to 44-22.

The hosts crossed over 48-30 in front and immediately hit Bears with a 16-7 burst before later establishing their biggest lead at 72-43 on a basket by Johnson.

Bears, for whom Jan Trojanowski top scored with 16 points, gave a debut to youngster Lee Miles, a 6ft 2 inch English guard, who has previously been coached by Dunning.

Bears scorers: Trojanowski 16, Gaines 13, Sharp 10, Claxton 9, Brown 9, Scantlebury 7, Miles 5, Brame 2, Newman 2.

Towers scorers: Johnson 18, Bowman 18, Duhaney 15, Coleman 9, Austin 8, Lewis 7, Balser 5, Foote 5, Henlan 4.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.