SKIPPER Richard Scantlebury believes rejuvenated Brighton Bears can cut Manchester Giants down to size.

The best side in British basketball are in Sussex tonight, but Bears will be ready for them after reviving their season with back-to-back wins.

Giants lead the northern conference by six points and have won the last nine meetings against Bears, including a hefty 97-60 success when the sides met three weeks ago.

But Bears have been revitalised by victories over Edinburgh Rocks and southern conference leaders London Towers in the last six days.

And the match is being played at the Triangle in Burgess Hill (7pm) where Bears have won all four of their games this season.

Scantlebury said: "Beating Towers was a great confidence boost for us, but Manchester are on a roll and they will be an even tougher proposition.

"When we played them up there we played an excellent first half and actually led by one point at half-time.

"To be fair they blew us away in the second half. We were poor, but in the last two games we have started to fight and scrap more and play for 40 minutes rather than in spells.

"Hopefully we can hang on in there with them and make it count when we get on top."

London Leopards, Chester Jets and Birmingham Bullets are among the sides Bears have beaten at their second home this season and Scantlebury says they enjoy the atmosphere at their second court.

"Don't ask me why, " he added. "It just seems to work for us. But if we can beat Manchester I would definitely say there was a God up there!"

Bears hope Stuart Newman will have recovered from a stomach virus which ruled him out of the win over Towers.

And as far as coach Mark Dunning is concerned, a repeat performance against Mike Finger's side will do just fine.

He said: "We proved up there that we can live with them for one half, the thing now is to put two good halves together like we have started to do.

"Giants have got as much talent as Towers if not more and there is good chemistry in their team, especially in their starting five.

"But if we play with the same intensity we showed against Towers we have a chance, especially at the Triangle where we seem to enjoy playing."

Tickets for tonight's game will be available at the Triangle box office.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.