Brighton Bears played the perfect hosts to some potential NBA stars of the future last night.

Too perfect, as far as their head coach Nick Nurse was concerned.

Bears were soundly beaten by a UConn line-up with at last three youngsters widely tipped to make it to the world's biggest basketball league.

Arguably the hottest property of the lot, 18-year-old Rudy Gay from Baltimore, led the Huskies with 27 points and 11 rebounds, firing three threes and adding a couple of fabulous dunks.

UConn rated it the best performance of their four-game trip to England. Nurse just wished his men had made it harder for them.

He said: "They outclassed us and I didn't think that would be the case. They were bigger and more athletic but we played really poorly in the first half and I was very disappointed in that.

"It was two teams at two different speeds and with two different levels of being ready. We'd score a basket and they would be ramming it straight down our throats at the other end.

"I stand by one thing and that's when we step across the line to play, be it at training or against the national college champions from America, we go full speed, all-out, 100 per cent. We didn't do that for 20 minutes here."

Bears will train for two hours this afternoon ahead of tomorrow's BBL Cup semi-final with Milton Keynes, whose recent improvement was halted last night when they lost at home to Sheffield in the league.

Nurse admitted he was surprised by that result but added: "Milton Keynes are very dangerous and getting better by the week."

Yorick Williams led Bears with 23 points and huge amounts of endeavour, Ajou Deng enjoyed himself against his former college and the bench men used at the end played like their lives depended on it.

One of them, forward Radhi Knapp, will be among the team which takes on Milton Keynes.

UConn, though, always had too much class, speed and physical presence as their new point guard Marcus Williams led them with his most convincing display of the tour.

They led 42-29 at the half after Gay hit a late three and extended that as Josh Boone got inside to open the third-quarter scoring.

Bears rallied to 58-50 with two threes from Williams but their last chances to get right back in the game went when the same player missed three free throws, then saw another long range effort rim out.

Denham Brown replied with one of his four threes and Charlie Villanueva, a highly-rated 6ft 11ins forward from Brooklyn, had a couple of late dunks as UConn led by as many as 20.

Nurse always feared the Huskies would be lifted by their surroundings after their previous outings at Crystal Palace and Brixton.

UConn coach Jim Calhoun, a legend in American sport, confirmed that fear.

He said: "We go home with smiles on our faces. That was our seventh game of the season and we gave Brighton our best performance. People here probably saw at least two, maybe three NBA players.

"Keep your eye on Josh Boone, on Charlie Villanueva and of course Rudy is going to be a star. He can make plays, he's quick and he can do so many things.

"This was by far and away the best experience we've had this week, not even close.

"The fans were enthusiastic, the gym was beautiful and it made it much more game-like. I'd recommend any good college team to come over here."

Bears: Williams 23, Alleyne 18, Deng 8, Holley 7, Knapp 4, Perera 4, Lepore 3, Bates 2, Burns 2.

UConn: Gay 27, Brown 19, Anderson 11, Villanueva 8, Williams 8, Nelson 6, Boone 5, White 2, Armstrong 1.