Twarde Pierniki Toruń

Twarde Pierniki Toruń is a Polish professional basketball team based in Toruń. The team currently plays in the Polish Basketball League (PLK). The club has won Polish Cup and Polish Supercup titles in 2018. Currently the team plays under the name Arriva Polski Cukier Toruń due to sponsorship commitments.

Twarde Pierniki Toruń
Leagues	PLK
Founded	2004; 21 years ago (2004)
History	Twarde Pierniki Toruń (2004–present)
Arena	Arena Toruń
Capacity	6,284[1]
Location	Toruń, Poland
Head coach	Cédric Heitz
Championships	1 Polish Cup
Website	twardepierniki.pl
Home Away

History

Twarde Pierniki was founded in 2004. Toruń was offered a spot in the 2014–15 PLK season as a wild card because of the expansion from 12 to 16 teams. In the 2016–17 season, Toruń had its best season in club history and reached the PLK Finals. Here it lost to Stelmet Zielona Góra which meant the team ended in second place.

Toruń won its first trophy in on 19 February 2018, when it beat Zielona Góra 88–80 in the final of the Polish Cup, behind Karol Gruszecki who was named Most Valuable Player of the tournament.^[2]

Team also starts next season with winning the Polish Basketball Supercup. Another time Karol Gruszecki was named Most Valuable Player of the final match. ^[3]

Sponsorship names

Due to sponsorship reasons, the club has been known as:

• MMKS VIII LO SIDEn Toruń (2004–2005)
• SIDEn MMKS VIII LO Toruń (2005–2011)
• SIDEn Polski Cukier Toruń (2011–2014)
• Polski Cukier Toruń (2014–2021)
• Arriva Twarde Pierniki Toruń (2023)
• Arriva Polski Cukier Toruń (2023–present)

Honours

• Polish League

Runners-up (2): 2016–17, 2018–19

• Polish League

3rd place (1): 2017–18

• Polish Cup

Winners (1): 2018

• Polish Supercup

Winners (1): 2018

Season by season

Season	Tier	League	Pos.	Polish Cup	European competitions
2004–05	4	3 Liga
2005–06	3	2 Liga	4th
2006–07	3	2 Liga	4th
2007–08	3	2 Liga	3rd
2008–09	3	2 Liga	5th
2009–10	3	2 Liga	7th
2010–11	3	2 Liga	1st
2011–12	2	1 Liga	9th
2012–13	2	1 Liga	4th
2013–14	2	1 Liga	1st
2014–15	1	PLK	9th
2015–16	1	PLK	5th	Quarterfinalist
2016–17	1	PLK	2nd	Quarterfinalist
2017–18	1	PLK	3rd	Champion
2018–19	1	PLK	2nd	Quarterfinalist	Champions League	QR3
2019–20	1	PLK	5th	Runner-up	Champions League	RS
2020–21	1	PLK	10th
2021–22	1	PLK	7th	Quarterfinalist
2022–23	1	PLK	15th
2023–24	1	PLK	12th	Quarterfinalist
2024–25	1	PLK	9th

Players

Current roster

Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA-sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationalities not displayed.

Twarde Pierniki Toruń roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Nat. Name Ht. C 0 Abu, Abdul-Malik 2.03 m (6 ft 8 in) 29 – (1995-09-16)16 September 1995 PG 1 Myles, Divine   1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) 29 – (1996-02-25)25 February 1996 SG 3 Ertel, Michael  1.87 m (6 ft 2 in) 26 – (1999-01-22)22 January 1999 PG 6 Sowiński, Paweł 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) 19 – (2005-10-28)28 October 2005 G/F 9 Wilczek, Dominik  1.94 m (6 ft 4 in) 26 – (1999-07-16)16 July 1999 PF 10 Grochowski, Ignacy 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) 27 – (1998-05-21)21 May 1998 SF 11 Ryuny, Dzimitry 2.05 m (6 ft 9 in) 25 – (2000-01-12)12 January 2000 PF 12 Kunc, Aljaz  2.05 m (6 ft 9 in) 26 – (1999-07-30)30 July 1999 PF 17 Lipiński, Hubert 2.02 m (6 ft 8 in) 19 – (2005-12-17)17 December 2005 F 18 Gaddefors, Viktor 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) 32 – (1992-10-08)8 October 1992 C 40 Benson, Barret 2.08 m (6 ft 10 in) 27 – (1997-12-25)25 December 1997 PG Smith, Arik 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) 31 – (1993-12-09)9 December 1993 F/C Langović, Aleksandar 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) 24 – (2001-02-19)19 February 2001 SG Szlachetka, Mateusz 1.96 m (6 ft 5 in) 26 – (1999-03-21)21 March 1999 C Kulig, Damian 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) 38 – (1987-06-23)23 June 1987 SG Lapornik, Miha 1.94 m (6 ft 4 in) 31 – (1993-10-18)18 October 1993 PF Kenig, Maciej 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) 18 – (2007-06-09)9 June 2007 G Brenk, Adam 1.92 m (6 ft 4 in) 30 – (1995-05-08)8 May 1995	Head coach Srđan Subotić Assistant coach(es) Jarosław Zawadka Bartosz Diduszko Legend (C) Team captain Injured Roster Updated: July 30, 2025

Coaches

• Marek Ziółkowski
• Grzegorz Sowiński: 2008–2011, 2013–2014
• Jarosław Zyskowski: 2011–2012
• Eugeniusz Kijewski: 2012–2013
• Milija Bogicević: 2014–2015
• Jacek Winnicki: 2015–2017
• Dejan Mihevc: 2017–2019
• Sebastian Machowski: 2019–2020
• Jaroslaw Zawadka: 2020–2021
• Ivica Skelin: 2021–2022
• Miloš Mitrović: 2022–2023
• Cédric Heitz: 2023
• Srđan Subotić: 2023–present

Individual awards

Polish Cup MVP

• Karol Gruszecki – 2018

Polish Supercup MVP

• Karol Gruszecki – 2018

PLK Most Improved Player

• Krzysztof Sulima – 2017

PLK Best Coach

• Dejan Mihevc – 2018

All-1 Liga Team

• Tomasz Wojdyła – 2014

All-PLK Team

• Danny Gibson – 2016
• Maksym Korniyenko – 2016
• Aaron Cel – 2018, 2019

Notable players

Note: Flags indicate national team eligibility at FIBA-sanctioned events. Players may hold other non-FIBA nationalities not displayed.

Criteria
To appear in this section a player must have either: Set a club record or won an individual award while at the club Played at least one official international match for their national team at any time Played at least one official NBA match at any time.

• Alade Aminu
• Aaron Cel
• Sean Denison
• Karol Gruszecki
• Danny Gibson
• Przemek Karnowski
• Maksym Korniyenko
• Damian Kulig
• Cheikh Mbodj
• Obie Trotter
• Kyle Weaver