Leicester Riders 98
Riders: Bernardini 28, Hassan 20, Losonsky 15, Roland 14, Watson 8, Anderson 7, Lamble 6, Washington, Gamble, McSwiggan, Noel, Rowe.
Surrey United 80
Setty 25, West 19, Crecco 15, Knutson 11, Dusha 8, Callum 2, Forson.
Leicester Riders made a successful start to the defence of their BBL Cup crown, seeing off Surrey United 98-80 in the first round.
Riders' full-court pressure defence was too much for the visitors to handle, although some good early shooting kept United in the game until half-time. But as so often before in recent seasons, Leicester pulled away in the second half to win at a relative canter.
Tyler Bernardini's impressive shooting had Riders 15-10 in front after only four minutes, before the visitors replied with seven unanswered points. Derek Roland came off the bench to hit eight in a row for the Leicester as a spell of 13 points to five around the first break saw them 28-22 ahead.
With Bernardini regularly punishing Surrey from behind the arc, Pavol Losonsky was causing them just as many problems close to the basket as Riders stretched their advantage to 49-40 at half-time.
It was only the fact that Surrey had managed to make five of their 11 three-point attempts in the first half that the game was even that close. Riders swarming defence had forced them to turn the ball over 10 times and they probably deserved a bigger advantage.
But that didn't take long to get, after Jamell Anderson's triple early in the third quarter made it 54-42, the gap was never in single figures again.
Bernardini and Rashad Hassan combined to edge them further ahead and Anderson's alley-oop dunk from a Roland pass had Riders well clear at 85-66 with still over six minutes to play.
A pair of back-to-back triples from Neil Watson, either side of a steal from Conner Washington, saw the lead peak at 21 points late in the game. Riders' fans were on their feet with 90 seconds to go to give Anthony Rowe a standing ovation as he made his first return to competitive action since suffering a serious knee injury in January.
Bernardini continued his impressive start to life in Leicester with an effortlessly efficient 28 points, including five three-pointers, whilst Losonsky and Hassan combined for 35 points and 19 rebounds. Roland had his most impressive offensive night so far with 14 points off the bench.