Derby Trailblazers will be looking to reach the National Cup semi-finals for the first time when they host Sheffield Arrows at Noel Baker School on Sunday afternoon.

 

The Trailblazers reached the quarter-finals last season before bowing out at Division Two champions Leeds Carnegie, and have made swift progress through this year's competition.

 

Coalville Cougars were hammered 119-62 in Derby in the first round before Division One newcomers Leicester Warriors were beaten 78-74 on their own court in a tight game. The third round proved to be much more one-sided as Trailblazers romped to an 80-63 home win against Loughborough Student Cardinals.

 

For 2005 runners-up Sheffield, it will be the first time they have left Yorkshire in this season's competition. A strong fourth period saw Arrows overcome a 14-point deficit to win 85-81 at Bradford Dragons in the first round, before Sefton Stars were beaten 85-74 at the EIS. Second division Birmingham A's were the visitors in the third round, and Arrows overcame a one-point first period deficit to reach the last eight with a 96-86 victory.

 

The teams also meet in Sheffield for a league game on Saturday and coach Pete Kelly is expecting two tough games over the weekend.

 

“We face a daunting weekend double against Trailblazers, however we are really improving and coming together as a group. We have now seen players get to grip with the situation and start to understand something of their role.

 

“We will accept the challenge of a very good Derby side and I am confident that we will emerge from this cauldron of competition a better group of players. I do think we can set Derby some problems to solve at both ends of the floor."

 

Trailblazers coach Clarence Wiggins isn’t taking anything for granted ahead of the game:

 

"We've played them twice already, so we know a lot about them and like this weekend; we're going to be focussing on Saturday's league game before we even think about Sunday's cup tie. I'm expecting Sheffield to be better than when we played them before, but hopefully we'll be a lot better defensively than we were last weekend.

 

"As for the cup competition, yes it's good to still be in the competition at this stage. We want to do as well as we can do, so as long as we're in the competition, we're going to do what we can to try and win it. We think we have a team which is good enough to win some silverware this season and we're going to be talking about that with out guys in training this week.

 

"If we go out and perform as well as we're capable of doing, then we're going to come away with something this year. It may not be the Cup, but we're going to be in a final of some sort this year and once you're in a final, anything can happen."

 

The teams have already met twice in the National Trophy this season, with Trailblazers coming out on top on each occasion.

 

Derby won 94-74 away from home in early October, but the victory was not as easy as the scoreline may suggest. The Arrows started off strongly, racing to a 32-24 first quarter lead. It took some stern words from the Derby coaching staff to get the Trailblazers defence working properly and Sheffield were subsequently restricted to just 35 more points in the remaining three quarters of action.

 

By contrast, Derby piled in 70 points of their own, with Mark Woodhouse leading the way with 27 points and 13 rebounds. Simon Allaway was also on top form, converting 4 of his 6 three-point attempts on his way to 17 points and Joel Madourie had an impressive debut, notching up 10 points and 9 rebounds.

 

Sheffield were led by Luke Ellis with 15 points and Sam Spare who gathered 10 rebounds, despite Derby dominating the glass, as they out-rebounded the Arrows 53–38.

 

In the return, Derby completed a perfect record in the group stage of the competition with a 83-51 home win . Simon Allaway led all scorers with 18 points, while Dave Attewell was once again Derby's top rebounder, gathering five offensive and eight defensive boards.