Leopards 80, Bears 81: Randy Duck came up with a dramatic buzzer beater as Bears' roller-coaster season hit new heights last night.

The Brighton skipper followed up a missed Albert White shot to grab the rebound and score from close range, giving his side the lead for the first time in the contest and reigniting their southern conference title bid.

It was an astonishing finale which had coach Nick Nurse leaping across the court in delight as his side won a match which had seen them misfire horribly for 20 minutes and fall 24 points adrift by half time.

The reduced arrears by 13 in the third quarter then finished the job with an impeccable sense of timing.

Nurse said: "We pulled one off in a game we had no business whatsoever winning. What a turn around from being completely out of focus with everything in the first half to being completely tuned in at the end.

"We didn't get one play right in the first half but in the second we defended everything. We sure picked a good time to take our first lead of the game."

This first outing in almost three weeks could not have started much worse for the visitors against a side fired up by coach Chris Pullem to put one over his former club.

Leopards shot into a 19-4 lead inside five minutes, though Duck and Sterling Davies helped drag their side back to a three point deficit at the first break.

Bears lost White for almost the entire second quarter as he reached three fouls and were helpless to prevent a trio of Jason Kimbrough three-pointers and some vintage work inside from Martin Henlan seemingly put Leopards out of sight.

White was back for the third quarter and there was new purpose about the visitors. Davies twice set up Duck with great assists, then Duck blocked Kimbrough and set up a fast break from which Mike Brown hit one of his three triples.

The tide had clearly turned when Henlan missed from six inches and Bears went to the other end for White to grab his first success from outside the arc and bring it back to 74-71 with 5:20 to play in the fourth.

Brown and White again hit threes and Wilbur Johnson kept his side in touch with some strong work beneath his own basket to set up that stunning finale.

Bears were 80-77 down in the final minute when Duck converted two free throws amid bedlam from the home fans.

In desperation, the visitors then sent Henlan to the line with just 13 seconds to go. Nurse called a time out to further increase the pressure and the most experienced man on the court duly cracked, missing both shots.

That gave Bears their last chance. Davies and White both missed but Duck followed up to grab a precious rebound and write another chapter in this remarkable season for Nurse's men.

Leopards: Brown 18, Kimbrough 17, Alderson 15, Robinson 12, Henlan 7, Miller 6, Dantzler 5
Bears: Davies 26, Duck 17, White 14, Brown 14, Johnson 6, Seaman 4.