Brighton Bears coach Nick Nurse branded the match officials "clowns" as his side's run of home wins ended on a night of controversy at the Brighton Centre.

Bears saw a ten-point lead turn into an 11-point deficit in a calamitous second period and never really looked like fighting back in their opening Trophy group match of the season.

Chester Jets were in irresistible form, hitting 13 of their 22 three-point attempts, including an outrageous hit-and-hope by Calvin Davis from halfway.

But Nurse was angered by calls which forced Bears star Albert White to play for 15 minutes on four fouls and took Jets to the free throw line 34 times compared to just 11 for the hosts.

Jets outscored their hosts by 22 points from the line and Nurse felt the officials played a decisive role in his side's defeat.

He said: "The refereeing in this league has been favouring Chester for four years.

"They see them as this little team that has no bench and they won't call anything on them because they can't field enough players.

"Well, they are not that way anymore. They have won trophies, they are probably the best team in the country and they need to start calling them like they call everybody else.

"I will get on a personal campaign to make sure Chester are refereed like everybody else."

He added: "It was really decisive tonight. We got a ten-point lead and they call Albert for all these farcical fouls.

"Albert is the very best player in this league and these clowns sent him to the bench. He had three fouls before their whole team had four."

White's eight points in the first quarter helped Bears reach the interval with a 22-14 lead.

Mike Brown, given a reprieve by Nurse's decision to leave out new signing Rich Aigner, picked up anything loose and, when Errol Seaman grabbed the first score of the second quarter, Bears were ten clear.

That lead gone by the 15-minute mark, despite two quick threes from Mark Jackson. Having got on terms, Jets put together a run of 20-7 and the home fans in a disappointingly small crowd seemed to sense the game was up.

Nurse himself was called for a technical after a bizarre travel verdict against Randy Duck and, though White gave a flicker of hope with two long-range efforts in the final period, the lead was never cut to single figures.

Nurse admitted: "Chester are very good, very versatile and everything went in for them "There were five or six occasions where we had them bottled up and they threw in a three at the shot clock.

"These things get hard to handle and I don't think we handled them very well, which concerns me more than anything."

Bears shot 52 per cent from the floor, which paled into insignificance compared to some of the Jets' exploits.

Point guard John Thomas hit 15 of 16 shots, including seven of eight from three-point range.

Pero Cameron missed just two of 14, hitting three three-pointers, but Calvin Davis's third quarter special, right on the 24-second buzzer, stole the show.

Given that Bears felt there was an eight-second violation at the start of the play, it just about summed up their night.

Bears: White 19, Johnson 18, S. Davis 16, Brown 9, Jackson 9, Duck 9, Seaman 7, Chester: Thomas 31, McCord 23, Davis 22, Cameron 20, Hamilton 8, Langrell 2, Singer 1.

Final score: Bears 87, Chester Jets 107
Worthing survived another thrilling finale before rounding off their Trophy group games with a win.

Thunder, 16 points up after the third quarter, scraped in 81-79 away to Inter-basket.

The hosts drew level in the final period but never forged as Paul Mundy-Castle (36) and Sean Hampton (19) top scored for Thunder.

Gary Smith's side had already clinched top spot in the group and will be at home in the last eight.