Cheshire Phoenix head coach Ben Thomas believes this Sunday’s BBL Trophy quarter-final clash with Worcester Wolves at the Cheshire Oaks Arena will be ‘a hell of a game’ (5.30pm).

The Nix will go into the match on the back of an 83-70 victory at Plymouth Raiders last Sunday that extended their winning run in the BBL Championship to four.

And, while the Wolves went down to 91-82 at table-topping Leicester Riders the night before, they had won their previous nine games in all competitions.

The teams are level on points in the BBL Championship standings and will meet again in the BBL Cup final at the Arena Birmingham on January 28.

And Thomas said: “There’s only two teams in the whole of the league who can still win every competition right now – and that’s us and Worcester.

“Come Sunday night one of our teams are going to find they are no longer in one of those competitions (BBL Trophy) – and we’re planning on it being them. It’s going to be a hell of a game, and I’m sure it’s going to be close, but we’re ready for the challenge.”

Raheem May-Thompson on his way to scoring 24 points for Cheshire Phoenix at Plymouth Raiders

First up for Cheshire is a BBL Championship encounter at London Lions tonight (Friday, 7.30pm).

The Nix beat the Lions over two legs last month to set up the BBL Cup final showdown against the Wolves.

But Thomas warned: “Since then they’ve brought in Cory Dixon, who was at Plymouth and who is very good, and they’ve made a change with the coach, with Vince Macaulay stepping up.

“It’ll be a different team we’ll face, and it will be tough, but we’re planning on getting the win and we’ll accept nothing less.”

Cheshire are now sixth in the BBL Championship standings, with matches in hand on all of the sides above them, after the win over the Raiders.

And Thomas said: “It’s definitely nice to be in this position after a couple of years, when at this stage of the season, it was case of wondering whether we were going to make the play-offs. At the moment, if we can carry on what we’re doing, we should definitely make the play-offs.

Robert Sandoval in action for Cheshire Phoenix's win at Plymouth Raiders

"Me and the rest of the coaching staff and the players definitely feel we can be at the top end. We no longer just want to battle to get into the play-offs. We want to see how high we can go.”

The Nix are two points behind London in fourth following the success over Plymouth.

It was a success built around major contributions from Malcom Riley, Raheem May-Thompson and Orlan Jackman.

And Thomas said: “The spotlight is on CJ [Gettys, who has been named BBL Player of the Month for December] but we really do have a good team.

“Sometimes it’s going to be CJ who scores all the points, other times it’s going to be Malcolm and Raheem, other times it’ll be Orlan, and other times it’ll be Rob [Sandoval]. We’ve got a team who can step up and carry the weight of the scoring.

“But it was nice to show we’re not a one-man band, and that we’ve got a great team who all want to play and all want to win together. It was a great performance as a team.”