Oaklands Wolves will look to make a successful to start to a new era in British basketball when they host Leicester Riders in the Super League Basketball Women's Trophy.

The game at Oaklands Sportszone starts at 6pm on Sunday, with tickets available online at Basketball Club, Oaklands Wolves Basketball or England or by card on the door.

The SLB replaces the WBBL which collapsed following the withdrawal of American investment company 777, who were also involved in a failed attempt to buy Everton FC.

It will be a new-look Wolves' side in action on Sunday, with coach Lee Ryan having brought in nine new players along with the return of Herts-based guard Beth Sarrson and the Oaklands play-caller is expecting big things from his team.

Ryan said: "It’s been a lot of work over the off season to put together the strongest team in Oaklands history.

"We are looking forward to making a significant step up the championship table and give the Hertfordshire fans something to get behind this season.

"We’ve had a short but successful pre-season and head into this trophy game with ambition to progress in the competition."

The Trophy format sees the 11 SLB teams joined by Division One champions Ipswich in four groups of three.

Each group winner progresses to the semi-final with the title game talking place at the Birmingham NIA in January. 

Last season's basement side Cardiff are the group's other team, with Wolves travelling to the Welsh capital in October, and a victory against Riders would give them an excellent chance of qualifying for the final four.

Ryan's side won the pre-season tournament they hosted on Saturday, beating Brent, Cobham and Barking Abbey in games of 24 minutes each.

Perhaps more pleasing for the Wolves' coach was that the club's academy side also beat Division One sides Barking Abbey and Anglia Ruskin University before losing a thriller against Division Two champions Cobham.

The academy side will again compete in the Women's Elite Academy League as well as senior Division Two where they hope to mount a serious promotion challenge, with six of their players also training with the senior team and providing back-ups in the event of injuries.

After playing three tournament games on Saturday, the academy players returned to the court on late on Sunday afternoon to face Greenwich Phoenix in the U-18 National Cup, and recorded a resounding 101-22 victory.

Captain Caitlin Ryan, no relation to Lee, picked up where she left off last season by single-handedly outscoring the visitors, finishing with five triples in her 25-point haul.

Paris Mitchel-Tyson scored 14 points, with Holly Welsh Adding 13, an both Amye Swinney and Maliya Lawal finishing with 12 apiece as Wolves never looked back after scoring the first 12 points of the game. 

That completed a great weekend of National Cup success for Wolves as all four teams in action progressed to the next stage.

The U18 boys, most of whom will play senior National League Division Three basketball for the club, got things rolling on Saturday lunchtime as they overcame a poor start to defeat Essex Charge 108-57.

An upset had looked a possibility as the visitors led throughout the first period, going into the opening break 24-20 ahead, but a 24-10 second period put Wolves in the driving seat and they never looked back.

Gavin Mitchell led Liam Jerram's team with 17 points, Dan Kostadinov adding 13 and Larry Clark 12.

Sunday saw the U16 girls and boys second team both travel to Cambridge Cats, with the former winning 42-36 and the latter went home with a 76-65 victory.

Jane Yu's 20 points led the girls, and Wolves' 10-5 first period proved crucial with the rest of the game seeing little between the two teams.

Daisy Golan added six points for the visitors as they set up a trip to Ipswich in the next round. 

The boys led for almost all their game without ever really being able to pull away but with Zac Butterworth scoring 12 of his 20 points in the fourth period, Ibrahim Gariba's side progressed to the next round.

Albert Dye led the visitors with a 22-point haul.