Final fling for dancing Bears

Chester Jets' hopes of repeating last season's grand slam of four domestic titles came to an abrupt end at Birmingham's National Indoor Arena yesterday when they were beaten 89-79 in the National Cup final by the Brighton Bears.

The fact that the Bears were without their captain and playmaker Randy Duck with a hernia injury did not affect their performance. Chester had two players, John Thomas and last season's most valuable player in the Cup, Calvin Davis, who played in the final but contributed only two and three points respectively.

"Mr Magoo could see how that hurt us," said Chester's coach Robbie Peers. "They are two great players but they shot a combined two out of 18." John McCord led the Chester scoring with 28 points, but the only support he got came from Kenny Gregory, who hit 24.

Brighton had trailed 42-40 at half-time, but their ferocious rebounding effort, particularly at the Chester end, brought them back into the game with a vengeance.

Peers could only watch as his high-scoring team notched just four points - all from the free-throw line - in the first seven minutes after the interval. By the end of the third quarter, a Ralph Blalock three-point shot had given the Bears a 12-point lead.

Chester's last chance of holding on to their crown came when the New Zealand international Pero Cameron splashed two threes to reduce the lead to 73-69 with 4min 20sec remaining. Brighton's response was to spend the next two minutes scoring eight points without reply to calm the nerves of their coach Nick Nurse.

"I was waiting for Pero to come up with something - I knew Chester would produce a late run," said Nurse. "To be honest, I thought all those big baskets we'd been scoring were going to dry up, but their threat was short and we just kept on scoring."

Wilbur Johnson, a previous winner of the Cup with Sheffield, received the MVP award for his 24 points and 12 rebounds. Blalock added 22 points and the other three Brighton starters also scored in double figures.

"Last year I thought we had the best team in the league but we were out of the Trophy and Cup before we realised it," said Johnson, who is in his third year with Brighton. "We know we're good now."