DURHAM WILDCAT RJ Evans is up for the cup - but only after his teammates explained how the format worked.

Coming from the American college system, Evans didn't know what to make of the BBL Cup concept when first made aware of the competition.

But after turning to team-mates for an explanation, the former UConn guard is excited to take on Cheshire Phoenix in the first round tonight and feels the Wildcats can use the home crowd to their advantage.

"I am new to the cup aspect of this league and at first I was confused of how it worked," Evans said.

"But after talking to some of the veterans on my team it makes more sense. This competition is a great opportunity for us.

"We will get the play-off atmosphere during the regular season, which I believe will definitely be beneficial to us as a team."

But before Evans and his 2-1 team can begin dreaming about a successful cup run, they must first overcome a Phoenix side who - being coached by John Lavery for the 100th time - will look on the competition with equal optimism.

Evans added: "I see they have good guard play along with some size down low so we will have to neutralise that as much as we can defensively to get stops and use our depth and speed to run in transition and get easy points off of our stops for 40 minutes.

"This is another step in our growth process as a team, we are trying to improve every game and Cheshire will be a good test for us."

The Wildcats are in rude health having secured their second BBL win of the season last week with a 100-79 win at Surrey United, and coach Lee Davie has placed great importance on making cup progress.

"Last week we probably had our best week of preparation so far and we're now moving forwards and getting ready for Cheshire tonight in the cup," said Davie "It's an absolute 'must-win', it's one of our goals for the year to get out of the first round of the cups. We've got a home draw against Cheshire and we want to give them everything we've got."

Tip-off at the Newton Aycliffe Leisure Centre is 7pm tonight, tickets are available online now at www.godurhamwildcats.com.