Andrew Alleyne used to be the quiet man of the Brighton Bears.

Now the veteran centre from Barbados is having as a big a say as anybody in the champions' impressive start to their British League campaign.

Alleyne was joint top scorer with 20 points as Bears came back from an 11-0 deficit for a convincing 82-76 defeat of Sheffield Sharks at the Triangle on Saturday.

He kept his team in the game with 12 of their 14 first-quarter points and added eight rebounds before Yorick Williams and Ryan Huntley took up the scoring momentum.

Alleyne is bearing a hefty burden this season after a summer of departures at the Bears and the result has been a more outgoing, confident personality both on and off the court.

Responsibility is nothing new. Back in Barbados, a nation depends on him for points and rebounds and he has responded by twice taking them to the Caribbean Championship title, being named MVP both times.

That sort of pressure is now being brought to bear by his club and seems to be just what Alleyne needs.

At almost 36, it might be a bit late for what the Americans call a breakout year but he is averaging close to 20 points and ten rebounds per game and playing the best basketball of his BBL career.

He said: "Nothing has changed me. Last year's team had a lot more scorers and I took a back seat but this year me and Yorick are back and I know I've got to show more leadership, score some more and rebound some more.

"I think our new team believe in one another. That's what we get taught in practice every day.

"Help each other, support in defence, and that's what we're working hard on."

That defensive energy is what really impresses about Nick Nurse's new-look Bears, who held Sheffield's three-point shooters to just six successes from 23 attempts.

Two of those came from Sterling Davis, who was also effective driving to the basket and, with 17 points and ten rebounds, had respectable figures in his first game against his old club.

Respectable but not the devastating impact he would have wished for and not enough to upset a defence in which Tony Holley and Ajou Deng had an impressive presence.

As for Williams, he too is responding the extra demands of being a starter, key scorer, captain and fans' favourite.

Five success from seven three-point attempts kept his strike rate for the season above the 60 per cent mark.

Perhaps the real plus, though, was the sight of Huntley bouncing back from a poor night against Towers on Friday.

His pull-up jump shot was in good order as he recorded his first double-figure game of the season and he was in control as Bears dealt confidently with what could been a nervy last four or five minutes.

It was Huntley who ran the clock down and shot Bears into an unlikely lead on the first-half buzzer.

Unlikely because they had needed more than three minutes for their first points and were relieved to be just eight down at the first break.

Runs of 9-0 and 8-0, either side of a 7-0 for Sheffield, enlivened the second quarter.

Williams opened the third with a three off Huntley's in-bounds pass and the lead hit a game-high 12 late in the quarter when the skipper's missed free-throw was turned in by Holley on his way to a double-double.

Sharks got back to within five early in the fourth quarter and later pulled a fast one when they started playing while Bears were still in the huddle at timeout.

On both occasions, though, the home response was immediate and emphatic as Williams fired three-pointers to keep his side in charge.