Bears put one foot firmly in the Trophy quarter-finals last night and rewrote another little piece of their recent history.

Nick Nurse's men turned on the style to end a run of ten successive defeats at Leopards' Brentwood home, dating back to 1995.

It was great stuff to watch and coach Nurse declared: "We're not taking steps forward. We're taking great bounds forward.

"We did not play superbly great tonight. We still made mistakes but the guys are together. We decided from early on we were a lot better than the other team and it was not going to be long before we overtook them."

No team works harder then Bears and Nurse was especially delighted with a tally of 51 rebounds.

But they are also playing some of the most eye-catching basketball in the country at the moment and again Albert White took the attention with game-highs of 30 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists.

Bears finished the first quarter just 20-19 down after clawing back an ominous early eight-point deficit.

White's only success with a series of ambitious three-point attempts in the quarter, followed by a superb coast to coast raid by Mike Brown, edged Bears into a 14-13 lead after five minutes.

They could not hold that advantage until the interval, despite a triple from Brown, but their main concern from the quarter was to see Errol Seaman move on to three fouls as he did battle with the Leopards' big men.

Sterling Davis opened the second quarter with a three-pointer but for the next few minutes it was all about the offensive flair of Randy Duck and White.

Duck conjured a couple of scores out of nothing and seized on Mark Jackson's perfect long pass for a lay-up.

White hit two threes, then grabbed a huge rebound and sent his skipper away to strike again.

Wilbur Johnson tipped in another White three-point attempt as he was being pushed and sank the extra shot as Bears embarked on a 16-2 run.

Jackson joined in the three-point fiesta and, with the defence also tight, Bears went in at half-time 47-34 up and probably thinking the gap could have been even greater.

Nurse's men could still do little wrong after the restart as they moved 19 points clear. Their best work included a nonchalant no-look pass from White to put Johnson in and Duck's assist to White at the hoop as the defence chased shadows.

Maurice Robinson's scoring threat and the sheer determination of Jason Kimbrough gave Leopards hope and they ended the third period just about in touch at 73-62.

The home fans were getting excited when their favourites cut the arrears to eight points midway through the final quarter and Duck, whose individual display had tailed off, was benched on four fouls.

But Bears have got talent in depth these days and Davis stepped up in the closing stages with eight points and a block under his own basket to round off a superb night for the Sussex visitors.

Bears: White 30, Davis 23, Johnson 14, M. Brown 13, Duck 10, Jackson 7, Seaman 6.

Leopards: R. Brown 23, Robinson 20, Alderson 19, Kimbrough 15, Miller 5, Henlan 3, Dentzler 2.

Worthing Thunder will be expected to make it three wins from three when they visit NBL Conference new boys Kingston Wildcats tomorrow (8.15pm).

Thunder have won through to a Trophy semi-final at home to Plymouth next week but in-form skipper Paul Mundy-Castle said: "We are not even thinking about that yet."