Phil Waghorn today admitted his Genesis Brighton Bears need at least two wins from their last three games to clinch a British League play-off spot.

But the Bears' coach has set them the unlikely goal of three victories, starting at Birmingham tomorrow (6.00), to send them into the end of season knock-out on a high.

Bears suffered a third successive home defeat and ninth of the season to a thoroughly efficient Sheffield Sharks outfit heading for third place and inspired by Sterling Davis, who took his average in four games against his old club to 29 points per game by dominating last night.

The hosts produced a spirited third quarter effort to reduce an 18-point deficit to just five, with whole-hearted efforts from Jerry Williams and Terrance McGee helping lift a big Brighton Centre Crowd.

But their lack of options and depth was savagely exposed by a Sharks outfit who got 16 points off their bench and were cruising to victory well before the end.

The visitors shot at 59 per cent from two-point range and 50 per cent (11-of-22) from long range while Bears were 50 per cent and 23 per cent (3-of-13) respectively.

One consolation for Brighton is that they are now unlikely to finish sixth and go to Sheffield in the quarter-finals but the fear must be they could miss out on the play-offs all together.

Waghorn said: "We need to win two out of three without a shadow of a doubt.

"But, if we want to do something in the play-offs, we need to go in with a streak of wins and that's something we've struggled to do all season.

"We got beaten by a better team. Each time we threw down a challenge they responded to it.

"But in an individual game I maintain we can knock off anybody."

With Williams playing some inspired defence and Andrew Alleyne having joy close to the Sheffield basket, the start was encouraging for Bears.

Their last lead was 35-34 after 14 minutes but successive three-pointers from Blake Shelton and Davis ignited a 20-2 Sheffield run during which McGee picked up his third foul.

Bears trailed 56-40 at half-time having missed all eight of their three-point attempts.

McGee sank a couple after the break in a 16-3 run which cut into what had become an 18-point deficit.

His third triple got the hosts back to 73-68 as Brighton's offence was ignited by some improved work near their own basket.

But they never got closer than that five-point deficit.

Davis banked in a jumper to close the third quarter and really broke home resistance with a huge three-pointer as the shot clock expired to open an 11-point margin with 6:46 remaining.

The former Bear admitted: "I can't say that was a natural shot. Jerry had a hand in my face and it might have been a case of luck but I was able to get it off and it went down for us."

"We locked down on defence, we stopped out turnovers and did not let them get transition baskets and all of that contributed to the win."

l Next Tuesday's game with Leicester has been switched to the Bognor Arena.