London Lions became the first team to win both men’s and women’s cup finals in a single event with victories over Leicester Riders on BBL Cup finals day.

The wins gave the Lions’ new ownership group their first men’s title since taking over the franchise.

Earlier, their women’s side confirmed their status as favourites by beating Leicester 95-42 to retain the WBBL Cup.

Lions’ men break finals losing streak

The Lions’ men’s team had to dig deep to end their losing streak of three defeats in BBL finals to win their second BBL Cup final in four years, but found holders Leicester unwilling to give in.

A final that boasted seven Great Britain internationals and three former NBA players produced a level of intensity, skill and physical contact unseen in the the British game in recent years.

Leicester never led the final, but London made enough mistakes to allow a well-drilled Riders team to stay in touch despite the Lions appearing set to break the game open in the second quarter when they had their first 10-point lead.

Lions were 64-50 ahead at the end of the third quarter but then stopped scoring, as they had in losing two finals last season.

The solution they found was to run isolation plays for former NBA forward Sam Dekker, who scored three times in two minutes and also set up 7ft (2.13m) Greek centre Kosta Koufos for another score.

Dekker, who finished with 22 points and nine rebounds, was named most valuable player as London grabbed a much-needed piece of silverware after the influx of investment from 777 Partners.

“We had some new bodies today and there was some resilience on our end,” said Dekker. “We’ve played seven games in the last 14 days.

“Playing in Europe and having a target on our backs [in the BBL] is not easy.”

Koufos added 14 points and 12 rebounds and Luke Nelson contributed 11 points.

Leicester’s scoring was led by Zach Jackson’s 16 points and Kimbal Mackenzie’s 14, although it was Darien Nelson-Henry’s efforts in the fourth quarter that came closest to derailing Lions’ victory surge.

“We’ve got a bunch of guys that are never going to quit,” Nelson-Henry said. “But we missed some free throws and missed some easy bunnies around the hoop.”

Lions win sixth successive women’s final

The Lions’ women’s team had no problems in their final, dominating Leicester almost from the tip off to win their sixth successive final and their seventh piece of silverware in a 51-game domestic winning streak stretching back to April 2021.

Their 95-42 win was a foregone conclusion once they found a solution to Leicester’s Oliana Squires’ early scoring.

Squires went on to lead Leicester’s effort with 23 points but had 12 of those in the first quarter. After London put the clamps on her the result was a foregone conclusion, with five Lions scoring in double figures.

Mark Clark’s squad started with a pair of threes from Katsiaryna Snytsina but it was the defensive job they, and in particular GB international Holly Winterburn, did on Squires that gave Lions control of the final.

Mikiah Harrigan scored the highest of five Lions players to reach double figures, with 19 points, and Winterburn was named most valuable player as she added 16.

“We compete in practice every day with the thought that everybody is coming after London Lions,” said Lions point guard Leslie Vorpahl, who won a winner’s medal in only her second game with the team.

Down by 22 points at the break, Leicester never looked likely to get back in touch as London strode largely unopposed towards retaining the trophy they won last year in the same arena.

“I wish we could play these kind of games every week,” said Leicester coach Krumesh Patel. “Because it would improve us and the quality of the league.

“We let ourselves down early here but we proved we can compete with them in the first league game. That streak can’t last forever.”