Nick Nurse always hoped Brighton Bears' home town cup final would go down in history.

He probably planned it to be a fitting coronation for the best team in the country.

And he might have smiled when he thought of how the fans would love it.

Yesterday's BBL Trophy final at the Brighton Centre was certainly memorable. As the worst, most high-profile humiliation Bears have endured in years and their biggest defeat in 182 games under Nurse's command.

Best team in the country? Yes, Eagles certainly looked it.

And the fans? About 300 Geordies relished every second.

With the most notable exception of lion-hearted Ronnie Baker, Bears were the perfect hosts.

It was an awful afternoon for the club. Absolutely awful.

Newcastle triumphed because of their ferocious defence and won by so many because of their extra options coming off the bench.

Of course Bears have injuries. Ryan Huntley, Yorick Williams and Duncan Ogilvie are long term victims and Steve Lepore, Radhi Knapp and Cheyne Gadson had niggles.

That's quite a list. Want a shorter one? Try this. A pull-up jump shot from Lepore, a three-pointer by Baker and a put-back by Knapp.

That, believe it or not, is a full list of Bears' field goals in a spell of 19 minutes and 18 seconds which started at 29-29 and ended with Eagles 68-43 clear going into the final five minutes.

The game was won and lost in that time. In fact, it was all over bar a lot of shouting after the visitors scored the final five points of the first half and the first ten of the second to break that 29-29 tie.

Nurse admitted: "We've had some huge moments in the last four years but this has to be the worst day of all.

"Time after time in the past four years we have fought back. We picked a bad time for our heads to drop.

"Newcastle defended the hell out of us. It was as good a defence as I've ever seen over the course of a game in this league and we're not good enough offensively to handle that.

"It's my fault as much as anybody's. I haven't got us executing and we don't have guys who can break teams down. Maybe I was kidding myself but I thought we were a bit unlucky in the first half.

"One key to winning these games is how you come out after half-time. I tried to remind them and it didn't work."

For 18 minutes the game and the atmosphere lived up to expectations. Bears hit the front early on as Ajou Deng and Lepore sank threes.

It was fool's gold though. Big games are won close to the basket and Eagles had the edge there.

Andrew Alleyne, unstoppable earlier in the season, met his match and more in Frank Bennett, who added six blocks to his double-double.

Lepore battled and Gadson tried to drive into the heart of defence but, once there, had a nightmare. A three-of-22 from open play sort of nightmare.

Eagles star TJ Walker revealed: "We don't work on our offence in practice. We go into work every day thinking how we are going to stop teams.

"I was looking at the clock with three minutes to go and I was thinking 'we can't let this go'."

TJ was on his own there. The rest of us were thinking: "Will Eagles win by 30?"

Baker, whose energy and courage were a source of consolation to home fans, knew the game was up.

He said: "When the clock's running down you're helpless but you're a competitor and you want to keep fighting.

"It's hard to take. We've got to come back stronger."

Nurse would agree with that. Without his work to promote Brighton basketball, the Centre would probably not have staged this event. Bears would certainly not have been involved.

Right now, it probably doesn't seem to have been worth the effort.