Basketball
Cup Winners Cup
12 July 2007
The Poujoulat Heat Guildford and the Kularoos Plymouth Raiders will compete for the inaugural Cup Winners' Cup ahead of the impending 2007/08 British Basketball League season.
The competition will see the BBL Cup winners, the Heat, square off with the BBL Trophy winners, the Raiders, in a two-legged game allowing each the opportunity to raise a piece of silverware prior to the start of the new campaign.
The first game will be contested at the Plymouth Pavilions on Sunday 9th September (4.00pm tip-off), whist the return leg is at The Spectrum on Saturday 15th (7.00pm tip-off). The first ever BBL Cup Winners' Cup champions will be that team which wins on an aggregated score over the two games.
The Heat secured their first piece of silverware in the BBL when beating the Scottish Phoenix Honda Rocks at the NIA in January's BBL Cup final. Joint-league MVP Brian Dux led the team that day as his 21 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists saw them overcome the Rocks 81-78. Heat coach Paul James expressed his excitement at the introduction of this new competition,
"This will be a fantastic start to the season, and is another competition to be won for the Heat. Hopefully this is the shape of things to come and we can continue to have this tournament; when I started playing in Leicester we had the Tournament of Champions to begin the season and it was always a great spectacle."
The Raiders meanwhile won the BBL Trophy courtesy of a 74-65 defeat of the Newcastle Eagles at the MetroRadio Arena in March. Carlton Aaron was MVP with 25 points whilst Gavin Love averaged 14 points per game over the whole tournament and netted two huge three-pointers in the final. Plymouth's play-caller, Gary Stronach, said,
"It's a real honour to contest the first ever BBL Cup Winners Cup competition, and the whole club is looking forward to it. It will give the fans their first look at our team for this season, and it's a great opportunity for us to get the season off to a good start. Our fans will be really excited about this news, and hopefully we can pack the Pavilions on the 9th September."
The two teams met on six occasions last season. The Heat won the league series 3-1 on their way to the BBL Championship title. The teams split the games in the other competitions. The Heat won 95-88 in the BBL Cup quarter-finals, whilst the Raiders won 76-73 in the BBL Trophy group stages.
In sanctioning the new competition, BBL Chairman Paul Blake commented,
"The clubs see this as a positive introduction to this season's competitions and a great way to tip-off off the 2007/2008 season in the BBL. We would all like to see this event continue in future years and grow in stature."
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