London Lions continue their defence of the BBL Trophy on Sunday evening when they visit Manchester Giants for a quarter-final tie, tip-off 5pm.
While Lions won the competition by beating Plymouth Raiders in last season's final and were also runners-up in 2002 and 2019. Giants have a poor record in the competition having only got past the first round once in the last seven seasons, with their defeats including a loss at Division One side Essex Leopards in 2017.
But under former Barking Abbey coach Lloyd Gardner Manchester are having one of their best seasons in the BBL and defeated Sheffield Sharks 90-77 to reach the quarter-finals. They went into Saturday's BBL Championship game at Surrey Scorchers sitting second in the table with seven wins from 12 games.
Lions’ coach James Vear is looking forward to coaching against this friend and former colleague Gardner:
“Obviously I know Lloyd well having coached with his for six years, and it’ll be good to see him” he said.
“We know each other’s game, and Manchester are one of the better teams in the league. They have some good players and it isn’t going to be easy game. We need to be much better than we were in the fourth period on Friday.”
Tyrik Armstrong leads Gardner's team 16.4 points, adding 5.8 assists and 3.9 rebounds. GB captain Dan Clark - son of Lions' WBBL coach Mark - led them in their win at Sheffield, hitting four three pointers on the way to a 26 point, seven rebound night. The London born forward leads them in rebounds with 8.4 per game, adding 14.8 points, 2.8 assists and 1.7 blocks in 28.2 minutes per game. Another Brit, Jamell Anderson 11.4 points and 2.8 assists.
It will be the second time the sides have met this season and December's game saw a big night from Dirk Williams as his six triples in a 30 point performance saw Lions run out 107-80 winners
.jpg)