He is the tallest player in the team, has the most famous surname in British basketball and now sports an eyecatching afro.

None of which makes him an obvious candidate to be a secret weapon but 6ft 11in Ajou Deng could turn out to be exactly that as Brighton Bears chase the title.

The race for top spot is still alive after Bears scored a reassuringly routine 20-point demolition of Thames Valley Tigers at the Brighton Centre last night.

They did not need 30-point heroics from Cheyne Gadson this time, though Steve Lepore, once he had been implored by his coach to trust his three-point shot, had 29.

Lepore hit seven threes from ten attempts, three of those successes coming in just 58 seconds late in the contest, to go with nine rebounds and six assists.

We always knew he could do that. It was just a matter of time before his high-arcing jump shots started dropping again.

What took more getting used to was the sight of Deng playing like a guard at times, helping break the full court press and eating up the ground as he dribbled languidly up court.

Atter all, giants like Deng, whose brother Luol is flying the flag for both Sudan and England in the NBA, are supposed to clog up the middle and compete for rebounds and put-backs.

Not pass, dribble and put up ten three-point attempts, as he did last night.

It all helps give Bears another dimension as they strive to overcome the loss of Ryan Huntley and Yorick Williams to injury.

Deng said: "It's like a new team. We've lost Ryan and Yorick and they were big-time players for us.

"Now we have to change our offence. We're a big team so I'm playing at small forward, a little bit out of position, and helping out other guys.

"I can dribble the ball a little bit and they were pressing us so somebody had to do it."

Coach Nick Nurse said: "Ajou can do a lot of stuff. He's talented. The thing I really like is the way he's rebounding at the defensive end."

Lepore and Deng were recalled from the bench after Tigers had gone on a 10-1 run to reduce arrears to 12 going into the last five minutes.

That was time enough for Lepore to rattle in 12 points and fire an assist to Radhi Knapp.

Not that the outcome was ever in much doubt after an 11-0 second-quarter burst which made up for Bears' slow start.

Nurse added: "The players wanted to do so well at the start that nothing went right.

"It's funny how confidence goes. It was really nice to see us pop that ball around later in the game and make some threes."

It took seven possessions, nearly four minutes of play, a timeout, a vocal blast from Nurse and two substitutions to get Bears their first points.

Knapp left the bench and won and converted two free throws to eat into Tigers' 6-0 head start.

The Anglo-Canadian is a valuable man to have around at these testing times.

He scraps for loose balls, as he did to set up Lepore's first three, and, when benched, barks out commentary to help his colleagues' defensive effort.

And the other conclusion from the evening? That the word is out on Gadson.

He weathered double teams and full court pressure to dish out nine assists. That was five more than he totalled in three previous games and showed another facet to his game.

Bears will need that as the season reaches its finale.