Ajou Deng is ready to come out on top in the battle of British basketball's most explosive new big men.

The 6ft 11ins Brighton Bear rookie with the all-round game goes head-to-head with Plymouth Raiders' 6ft 10ins defensive specialist Gerrick Morris as knockout action comes to the Triangle tomorrow.

Bears and Raiders lock horns in the quarter-finals of the BBL Cup.

It promises to be an intriguing evening on and off the court, with Bears keen to recover from league defeat at Chester last Sunday and cast an anxious eye to the stands in hope of an increased attendance.

But the battle between Deng and Morris for aerial supremacy offers an eye-catching sub-plot.

Morris leads the league with 3.5 blocks per game, including 12 in one outing, while Deng has two per match, but that is not the end of the story.

The defensive presence of both men means that, even when they do not get a hand to a shot, they can force misses or persuade an opponent to pass the ball to a less well-placed colleague.

Where Deng has the edge, though, is in scoring. He has 67 points in five outings, culminating in his first 20-point game at Chester.

It is one of the most impressive sights in the game to see a hoop-bound shot swatted away by a defensive hand.

The laws of the game dictate that the block has to take place before the ball begins the downward part of its trajectory, making timing very much of the essence.

Shot-blockers and defensive specialists these days look to Detroit's NBA champion Ben Wallace for inspiration but Deng also mentions old school NBA giants in Manute Bol, Hakeem Olajuwon and Patrick Ewing.

He said: "Blocking shots is more a question of timing than anything else. Having some height is an advantage, of course, but it's all about seeing how the guy is going up for the shot and then getting the timing right.

"You have to be careful. Sometimes you can get called for a foul when the guys are clever and move into you but when you block a shot it gets the crowd excited and really helps the team because it makes it easier to get to the other end in transition."

As well as the league's top blocker, Raiders also have the leading rebounder in Terrence Durham, who averages 17 per game, but Deng will be well informed on what he is up against.

His older brother Deng Deng used to play for Raiders and still lives in the area.

The Bears star said: "He might come down for the game. He has told me some of the guys in the Plymouth team but hopefully I'll talk to him again before the game.

"It's going to be a battle. We are coming off a loss and we need to win this game.

"Last week at Chester we did everything you can do to put yourself in a situation to win when you play away but we didn't execute as well as we should have done in overtime."

Deng and Andrew Alleyne led the scoring last weekend and might need to continue that form if top marksman Yorick Williams is hindered by a hand injury he picked up in the defeat of Milton Keynes last Saturday.

Bears coach Nick Nurse is convinced his men will come bouncing back from the double setback of the Chester defeat and their withdrawal from the Europe League.

He said: "Plymouth have shown they are not fish out of water at this level and have got some nice results but we're at home and it's a good draw for us."

The pick of the other ties sees Newcastle go to Chester. Milton Keynes host holders Sheffield and Thames Valley trek to Scottish Rocks.