Bears coach Nick Nurse's gambling instincts paid off as his side chalked up a 71-63 victory against the London Leopards, their first victory of the season.

British League teams are only able to play two non-work permit players and because Michael Brown is still waiting for his British passport it meant Nurse had to decide whether to play Canadian Dave Wahl or give Albert White his debut at the Brighton Centre last night.

Nurse gambled on White even though the man from Detroit had only arrived in England at 6am yesterday morning after his flight was diverted to Toronto and delayed.

What's more, Brown lost the bag containing his size 15 shoes en route which left Nurse and the team management calling sports shops in the city before one agreed to open specially so White, who was getting some much needed rest while all this frantic activity was going on, could get kitted out.

He only met his new team-mates 90 minutes before the tip-off, but the small forward with the big reputation in one of America's top leagues justified Nurse's decision with an impressive display.

White contributed 12 points and did enough to suggest he will have a big part to play at both ends of the court as Bears plot a course to the southern conference play-offs.

Nurse said: "It was a hard decision to leave Dave out because he has worked hard, but he will still have a big part to play in our season.

"But the decision was made easier for me because Leopards are a small, quick team and Dave had no obvious match-up on their side.

"Albert only met the guys just before the start and obviously he doesn't know any of them or any of our plays too well, but I thought he did well."

Although it was a fairly scrappy encounter with both sides struggling to find their shooting range, Bears were deserved winners.

They started poorly and when an increasingly frustrated Nurse called his first time out after just six minutes they were already 11 points down.

But whatever Nurse did seemed to work. Bears got their defense organised and they turned a 15-4 deficit into a 32-23 half-time lead as Leopards were restricted to just four points in the second quarter.

Between them six shooting guards managed just 18 points in the first half, but the quality of play from both sides did improve in the second half.

"We are capable of being one of the best defensive teams in the league and we saw signs of that in the second quarter," added Nurse.

"If you can maintain that sort of discipline then you will always give yourself a chance every time you step on the floor."

Rod Brown tried to organise a response from the visitors after the break, but Bears kept them at arm's length with Wil Johnson back to his best.

Big Wil top-scored with 27 points and it was only in the final stages, when Bears got a little sloppy in their passing and execution that Leopards were able to peg back the deficit.

But Nurse is well aware that there is still a lot more to come from his team.

"We're probably playing at 75 per cent of capability, but in terms of preparation we are still well behind a lot of teams so things will improve once the guys get in shape.

"There were signs of great team-work developing tonight but we didn't finish off enough of the plays.

"But I'm happy that we believed we could win, especially after the start we had. We will improve, I can promise the fans that."

Bears are in action again on Thursday when Daniel Hildreth returns to Brighton with new club Derby Storm (7pm).

Bears: Johnson 27, Davis 16, White 12, Duck 7, Brown 7, Seaman 2.