There’s a repeat of the 2004 BBL Cup final at the EIS on Friday when the Sheffield Sharks and the SAMG Verve Scottish Rocks tip-off a fascinating weekend of BBL Cup quarter-final action.  These sides also clashed at this stage in 2005/06, a game that the Rocks edged 77-81 in overtime.

However, the Sharks won the first final of the competition four years ago, beating the Rocks 83-70, and the two BBL Championship meetings this season have both gone the way of Pete Scantlebury’s team as well.

The sides met on the opening night of the season, and Sharks won 85-83. With just five minutes to go the Sharks had slipped to a 77-72 deficit, but a 7-0 burst in the space of 90 seconds gave s an 84-80 lead that they wouldn't relinquish.  Shark’s Justice Graham led the scoring with 21 points, while former Shark Rob Yanders scored 21 points for the Rocks.

The sides met again last weekend, and Sharks survived a tremendous fight-back from the Rocks to return home with an 85-81 win. Sheffield had led 55-36 at half-time, but Rocks recovered to lead 78-71 with three minutes remaining, only for Alto Virgil to inspire the Sharks to the win with five points in a 14-3 close to the game.

Sharks suffered another injury blow in that game, but Scantlebury is hoping to have strengthened his squad by the time the teams meet again on Friday evening,

“Raymond McKeithen turned his ankle, so it looks like we’re another man down. It’s been one of those seasons, and we’ve had a bit of bad luck. We’re still looking to replace Steve Parillon, and it looks like we may have someone in by Friday.”

Scantlebury expects that the Rocks will raise their game as they look to reach their fourth final in five seasons, “Rocks have been in the final a lot recently, so they will feel that they can do better in it this season. It’s going to be another tough one for us. Rob Yanders, Sterling Davis and Julius Joseph are their three key players. We have to come out and play like we did in the first 20 minutes on Sunday. But we have to do it for all 40 minutes.”

Like his counterpart, Coach Davis is looking for his side to produce a more consistent performance on Friday evening, “We need to put a full 40 minute performance together. It’s a tough place to play, but the cup is a good opportunity for us. It’s not so much about what we’ve done in the past, but this is a good chance to win something this season.”

The second meeting of the weekend between the Poujoulat Heat Guildford and Jelson Homes DMU Leicester Riders sees a place in the last four of the BBL Cup at stake.

Heat coach Paul James is looking forward to his side starting their defence of the competition they won back in January at the National Indoor Arena, “It definitely means something to be defending champions, it would be nice to give ourselves the chance to win it again.  There’s some tough teams left in it, but we need to make sure we get through this stage before we worry about them.”

Riders signed former Guildford pair Chad McKnight and Roderick Wellington during the summer, and Heat captain Mike Martin is looking forward to clashing with his old team-mates in a competition that means a lot to him, “We’re looking forward to meeting up with Chad and Roderick again. Lifting the BBL Cup was one of the best moments of my career, along with getting a bronze with England in the Commonwealth Games, and it’s a competition that we’re looking forward to. We need to get back on track, and the two games against Leicester are very important for us.”

McKnight scored 20 points at the National Indoor Arena in last season’s Cup Final, and Wellington came off the bench to make an invaluable contribution at key stages in the game.  Yet that isn’t the only storyline in this all-or-nothing clash, as for Heat Coach Paul James it will be a chance to return to the city where he made his name as a basketball player, having played for the Riders between 1981 and 1988 before joining the Thames Valley Tigers.  However, James admits that the passage of time means that the bond with the city is loosening, “It’s not the same any more, especially now that Karl Brown and my brother Jon aren’t coaching any more.  It’s been a long time, 20 or so years, but it will be good to see some old friends and guys I played with back in the day.  Obviously they’ve signed Chad McKnight and Roderick Wellington who were with us last season, so that spices things up a bit.”

Riders’ coach Martin Ford knows that Sunday’s cup game will be considerably different to the league meeting between the sides the previous night, “Sunday is a completely different animal to Saturday’s game.  If you can’t get up for a cup game, you’d have to ask if you could ever get yourself up for a game.  Chad and Roderick need to make sure they don’t try to do too much, but emotions will run high on Sunday.”

Amazingly, the Riders have not won in the BBL Cup since 2003/04, when the country's elite clubs formed this exclusive competition. They did however win the National Cup back in 2001 with an 84-82 defeat of the Leopards at Sheffield Arena.

There’s a place in the BBL Cup semi-final at stake at the Capital City Academy on Sunday afternoon when the PAWS London Capital host the Marshall MK Lions.

The two sides met on the opening weekend of the season, and despite a 47 point debut haul from Capital’s point guard Wes Miller, Lions won the free-scoring game 115-94. The Lions exploded out of the blocks, and an early 8-0 burst in the opening period saw them take a 25-12 lead, and they never looked back as Yorick Williams led them with 26 points.

Capital coach Steve Bucknall is expecting another tough test, “If we don’t come to battle, they’ll ride roughshod over us. This is a cup game, and is especially important to us. Anyone can win a cup, and it’s a good opportunity to win some silverware. It’s a good opportunity, if we work hard and play tough defence we have a chance of winning. But if we don’t compete, they’ll win the game mentally.” 

The SAMG Verve Scottish Rocks go in search of a second victory of the season against Worcester Wolves on Sunday as the two sides clash in the BBL Cup first round.

Rocks turned in a superb performance in the previous encounter to cruise to a 112 -71 victory in October’s league meeting.  A 33-22 first quarter advantage was turned into a 63-40 half time lead to put the match beyond Worcester.

Wolves’ coach Skouson Harker tried to rally his team with the first basket of the third quarter but once Rocks went 51-78 up midway through the period there was no way back as Maurice Hampton led all scorers with 26-points.

Despite that hammering, Rocks’ coach Sterling Davis is still expecting a tough game when the sides clash at Braehead on Sunday afternoon, “When we played them before they were an aggressive team, and were good in the open court. We need to stop their transition offence and play the right way.”

Although Worcester have struggled this season, Anthony Paez has been lighting up the league as he’s averaged 28.5 points per game, and Davis knows that they will need to stop him scoring if they are going to progress in the cup, “Paez is their key player, and he’s been doing well throughout the season.  If we’re going to win the game, we need to contain him.”

Rocks are going into the game looking to bounce back from a 74-69 loss at Plymouth, and Davis was disappointed not to pick up the win after such a long trip, “It was a long weekend, and we could have played better. We played well in the first half, but we came out in the second without enough intensity.  The momentum shifted in the second half, and they took control.  We had pretty balanced scoring with four guys in double figures, and everyone played solidly, it’s a big disappointment that we lost.”

While Wolves have yet to win a game in the BBL Cup, Rocks have reached the final in three of the competition’s four seasons.  For all that success, though, they have yet to lift the trophy, losing 83-70 against Sheffield Sharks in 2004, 90-74 against Brighton Bears in 2005 and 81-78 against Guildford Heat last year.

Wolves player-coach Skousan Harker has promised to ring the changes as his side look to end a poor start to the season. Wolves let a 13 points half-time lead against Milton Keynes Lions slip on Saturday night before being hammered 89-61 at PAWS London Capitals the following day.

Harker has vowed that his side will have a new look, after they were outgunned by a smaller, quicker Capital game, “We need to start matching teams in transition, we struggled against Rocks when we played them at home, and we struggled against Capital on Sunday. I prefer to play more of a running game, and even in the year I was away from the BBL, it’s got smaller and quicker.”