Now it really is make or break time for Nick Nurse and his team of would be silverware contenders.

Bears failed to take their second chance of qualification for the BBL Trophy semis on a miserable occasion for players and fans alike at the Brighton Centre last night.

The crowd of around 2,500 greeted the final buzzer with boos, not for the home performance so much as the stop-start nature of a contest dominated by the whistle.

In particular, they were angry with a foul call against Randy Duck which ended the hosts' chances of the win they needed to top the group.

Duck, whose three-pointer had put Bears into a 76-75 lead with 140 seconds to play, was called for an intentional foul as he looked to nick the ball off Michael Nurse.

The Tigers point guard hit one of the resulting free-throws to stretch his side's lead to three points with 40 seconds to go, then Brendan Graves sank two out of two having been fouled following the subsequent sideline possession.

Ed Williams finished it off with a dunk as Tigers became the first side to beat Bears in Sussex in 11 matches. Not that it sends them through. Instead, London Towers top the three-team group on points difference.

This was not what Bears needed to tempt back the many first-time visitors attracted to this novel early evening midweek fixture.

Those newcomers hardly experienced the Brighton Centre at its best. The atmosphere was disappointingly flat for almost the entire contest as the crowd did their best to fathom a range of foul calls.

Bears' lack of spark offensively hardly helped. Neither did the show-stealing shooting of Nurse and Barry Bowman, who hit eight three-pointers between them.

In fact, the only time there was any real noise was in the final seconds when the crowd realised, too late, their men needed help to avert a shattering setback.

It should never have come to that. Bears should be heading to Saturday's cup semi against Towers on the back of a crucial win, not a third successive defeat.

For the vast majority of the evening, it appeared the only good thing to come of the exercise from a home point of view was going to be an ugly but valuable win.

Bears led 19-17 after the first quarter and looked to have taken a stranglehold with a 14-2 run midway through the second.

Wilbur Johnson's turn around jump shot forced them in front and, when Duck struck from outside the arc, Bears led 38-29 with 2min.44sec to go in the quarter.

Tigers coach Paul James immediately called a timeout and the response was impressive as Nurse and Bowman unleashed four quickfire threes to bring Bears' lead back to just 42-41 at half-time.

The second half surge from the hosts never came, despite a Ralph Blalock dunk which momentarily lifted the crowd and good work from Emiko Etete, who completed a three-point play, then finished a give-and-go with Mike Brown.

Blalock's three made it 63-61 at the final interval and Bears led by four midway through the fourth with Tigers' big men in foul trouble.

Bowman and Graves, however, sparked a fightback and Williams put his side into a 78-76 lead as Bears failed to score in the final 140 seconds.

Duck twice drove to the hoop and saw shots bounce away off the rim and Johnson, under pressure, failed to tie it up at 78-78 before Tigers put the semis beyond reach.

Bears: Blalock 19, Duck 18, Johnson 14, Etete 12, Davis 6, Alderson, Brown 3.

Thames Valley Tigers: M. Nurse 23, Williams 18, Graves 17, Bowman 14, Cadogan 6, Holley 4, Meldrum 1.