Basketball: Free throws give Bears the booty

Brighton Bears scrambled to victory in over Birmingham Bullets the BBL Championship at Burgess Hill last night, when they were handed four free throws five seconds from time to snatch a 76-71 win.

The Bullets, who defeated Leicester Riders 91-88 on Saturday, trailed only 72-71 last night when an intentional foul was called on Brighton's Ralph Blalock.

The Bullets' coach Tony Garbelotto, enraged by the call, was ejected from the game and Blalock was given two frees for the foul plus another two for the ejection.

Blalock made three of the four, then potted another free when he was fouled again. Second-placed Bears are two wins behind the leaders Sheffield Sharks, 103-95 winners at Leicester on Friday.

Success in the Championship too often depends on who can squeeze most Americans through the eligibility net and Leicester have six. But the policy has stopped paying dividends and they replaced Birmingham at the bottom of the table with Saturday's 91-88 defeat. Antoine Sims is Leicester's only rookie import and the other five have seven domestic titles between them. Now they have lost 14 games in a row, 12 in the Championship.

Riders should have condemned the Bullets to their 13th defeat out of 14 when they led 69-56 in the third quarter. But Kevin Griffin, the only one of three American Bullets with BBL experience, and the BBL rookie Eugene Baah forced a string of turrnovers from Eric Burks and Malcolm Leak to inspire an astonishing 23-7 turnaround.