Sport Basketball Location United Kingdom | Dates 21 Sep 2007 – 4 May 2008 | |
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People also search for 2008–09 British Basketball League season | ||
The 2007–08 season, the 21st since the establishment of the British Basketball League, commenced on 9 September 2007, when the Plymouth Raiders succumbed to the Guildford Heat in the inaugural Cup Winners' Cup competition. The regular season started two weeks later on 21 September with 12 teams including new additions Birmingham Panthers, Everton Tigers and London Capital the later of whom stepped up from EBL Division 1 during the summer. After just one season in the top-flight, London United were forced to drop out due to the loss of its financial backer just weeks before the start of the season.
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Guildford's participation in the ULEB Cup saw a British team return to European competition for the first time since Brighton Bears' appearance in the same competition in the 2003–04 season. Out of their depth, the Heat finished their European adventure with a 0-10 record.
On the domestic scene Guildford continued their dominance, collecting the Cup Winners' Cup, BBL Trophy and the Play-off crown. Newcastle Eagles were Champions of the League's regular season campaign, whilst rookie teams Everton and London ended with respectable 7th and 9th-place finishes. The League also secured a live broadcasting contract with Setanta Sports midway through the campaign which saw one televised game a week screened on live on their network.
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Notable occurrences
Cup Winners' Cup
The 2007–08 season saw the inauguration of the BBL's newest competition, the Cup Winners' Cup. The pre-season event between last season's winners of the BBL Cup and BBL Trophy was staged over two legs with the winner determined by the final aggregate score.
Guildford Heat claimed the upper-hand in the first leg away to Plymouth Raiders with an 83-77 victory, despite being ahead by 18-points, Raiders kept fighting and eventually clawed the game back before losing in the final minutes.
The second leg in Guildford was an equally tight affair, but Heat's strength combined with Raiders' poor free-throw shooting, gave them a 93-91 victory, tallying up to an 176-168 win on aggregate.
BBL Cup
For the 2007–08 edition of the BBL Cup, the top three ranking teams from last season's BBL Championship – Guildford Heat, Sheffield Sharks and Newcastle Eagles – plus the Milton Keynes Lions, all received a bye into the Quarter-final, leaving the remaining eight clubs to battle it out in the First Round.
BBL Trophy
This season's BBL Trophy was slightly reformatted from the previous edition of the tournament. The first round comprised three groups of three and one group of four. Gone were the lower league clubs for the English Basketball League and Scottish Basketball League, with the exception of the previous year's EBL Division 1 champions Worthing Thunder, who stepped in to fill the spot vacated by London United, who withdrew prior to the season opener.
Each team played each other twice, once home and once away, and after each group campaign is completed, the top team from each group advanced into the semi-finals. If teams tied on points (2 for a win, 0 for a loss), head-to-head results would come into play.
Group stage
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Final
The Final for this season's BBL Trophy was held on 2 March 2008, at the Pavilions in Plymouth, the first time the venue has hosted a major final. It was a 'North-South' final contested between Newcastle Eagles and Guildford Heat, and was broadcast live on television, on Setanta Sports 2, and also BBC Radio Newcastle.
Newcastle had been leading 47–35 at the half, but a Guildford comeback led by Most Valuable Player E.J. Harrison and Daniel Gilbert, overhauled the Eagles for their first trophy of the season, after the league and cup double of last season. Harrison scored 10 of his 25 points in the closing quarter with Gilbert scoring 3 in the last minute to cement the trophy for the Heat. Lynard Stewart led all scorers in the match with 26 points, but this was not enough for Newcastle as Fabulous Flournoy's men went down in their second consecutive final after losing to Milton Keynes Lions in the BBL Cup final.