Ralph Blalock knows how it feels to be crowned king of the national cup.

Now he hopes to repeat his final triumph with underdogs Leicester in 2001 and bring some overdue silverware to the south coast.

Brighton Bears tackle the powerful Chester Jets in the national cup final at the NIA in Birmingham on Sunday (1.45pm).

It is a huge day for south coast basketball with Worthing Thunder taking on Teesside Mohawks at the same venue in the NBL trophy final (4pm).

The Sussex clubs will have good backing but face major tests against the two teams who dominated British basketball last season.

Bears are without injured skipper Randy Duck but Blalock, who hails from Chester in Pennsylvania, is convinced they can repeat the form which earned them a 12-point win at London Towers last week.

He said: "To my knowledge Brighton has not had a lot of success and that's what we are trying to bring here.

"Last week was another test for us. We lost Randy Duck but we played together, played tough defence, executed our offensive plans and stuck with it.

"We have beaten teams when we are not at full strength. When we do get to full strength hopefully we can get back to winning by 15 or 20 but right now we will take any win we can get."

Bears have not reached the cup final since 1994 but they have experience of final day within their current squad.

Wilbur Johnson was twice a cup winner with Sheffield, Emiko Etete got there last year with Birmingham and Rico Alderson was in the defeated Leopards side when Blalock was named MVP with Leicester two years ago.

Blalock said: "We were a bunch of guys who had had individual success but not as a team.

"They all said we couldn't do it but we accomplished a great feat and also won the Wembley championships.

"We were underdogs but we overcame adversity. I don't think the Bears are underdogs. We are capable of going in there and getting the win.

"We have enough experienced and capable guys to get the job done."

Blalock is known as King Ralph and Bears fans saw the reason for that nickname when the big games came around.

After a steady start with his new club, he came really good in their two biggest matches so far, at home to Chester in the league and against Towers in the cup semi-final.

He also stepped up when Bears were struggling early in their quarter-final over Newcastle, the club for whom he top-scored as a visitor when they won the first game back at the Brighton Centre in 1999.

That was a big occasion which turned flat for the re-born Bears. The King is determined there will be no let down this time.