Phil Waghorn today challenged his Genesis Brighton Bears to end the season on a high after their longest day ended in heartbreaking defeat.

Bears, struggling to get into the play-offs, gave the BBL leaders the fright of their lives at the Braehead Arena last night before Frank Bennett grabbed the winning points with three seconds remaining.

The visitors led by 23 points early on but now face a real struggle to lift morale and clinch a topeight finish.

Coach Waghorn admitted: "It's very disappointing but I am confident they can respond. I keep telling them that.

"We were positive, there was a good vibe about the team and I think we can bounce back from this. We played great to start with but we knew they would come back. They just came back a bit too easily."

Bennett scored on an inbound play with one second remaining on the shot clock after Jerry Williams had blocked Rob Yanders' driving lay-up.

Bears felt Yanders got the last touch as both players fell over the baseline but Rocks were given possession and made stunning use of it.

Williams then hit the front of the rim with a potential game-saver as time expired.

An astonishing contest saw Bears race into a 28-5 first-quarter lead, then come back from an eightpoint deficit with 6:41 remaining.

Terrance McGee, outstanding against his former club, capped a 10-2 run to tie the scores with a pair of free throws with 1:13 to play.

Andrew Alleyne then had a great chance to nudge Brighton in front from close in with 27 seconds remaining but Rocks stole it with a play coach Steve Swanson described as their fourth option.

Swanson said: "Frank is pretty athletic. We thought if all else failed we could put him in that position to catch and shoot but it hardly ever works."

Justin Phoenix opened the first quarter with a put-back and ended it with two free throws for the hosts. But in the 9:15 in between, Bears piled up 28 points to Bennett's lone three.

McGee had 16 points in the quarter and added the three to open the second session but Bears never struck from behind the arc again.

The expected barrage of threes from Rocks started in the second period, helped by improved defence and some key offensive rebounds.

They went on a 12-1 run which cut arrears to 40-33 by half time.

The hosts then scored 12 of the last 14 points in the third quarter to edge ahead at 57-55.

Swanson admitted: "In the first quarter we didn't figure it out very quickly. We changed defences and went box-and-one on McGee and they had some difficulty with that."