Loughborough Student Riders reach the quarter finals of BBL Trophy for the first time ever

LOUGHBOROUGH Student Riders Basketball will take on the London Lions in the BBL Trophy quarter final at Loughborough University on January 19.

The London Lions will come to town as the Loughborough Student Riders will take the floor for their first ever BBL Trophy Quarter-Final game after the team overcame Falkirk Fury in the opening round of the competition.

It is just the second season of the Student Riders competing in NBL Division One, already making the Play-off Final last season and this year being named in the BBL Trophy competition following their positive start to the season.

The student Riders are also still active in the NBL National Cup and Trophy competitions whilst opening 2018 in second place in the table.

Head Coach Mark Jarram is excited to test the squad as they match up with one of the best basketball team’s in the country.

“It is a great opportunity for this year’s group and the programme to still be playing in this competition, fully deserved for the team’s efforts so far this year.

“We understand that we are playing one of the top teams in the country let alone the BBL, so know that it is an extremely challenging opponent for us. Our goal however is to not participate in the game, we aim to compete.

“Many of these players aspire to play at the BBL level so it is a good learning opportunity to see where they are at in comparison to such players and then gives them the learning experience to come away from the game hopefully inspired to what is the next level.”

Chairman of Loughborough Basketball programme Russell Levenston said: “It’s a massive achievement for the programme reaching the BBL quarter-final and we are really excited about hosting the game at Loughborough University.

“The programme has developed a lot since it started seven years ago, we are hoping for a big crowd to come out support the Loughborough Student Riders team.”