The visiting New Zealand Breakers were able to dig themselves out of a nine point third quarter hole to overcome the Brisbane Bullets by five points at the Brisbane Exhibition and Convention Centre on Thursday night.
The Breakers were led to the 101- 96 victory by young Kiwi guard Shea Ili who was superb off the bench for the visitors, posting a game high 23 points.
Outside of seven points from Thomas Abercrombie, Ili played an almost a lone hand offensively in the first half with 15 points, 11 of which came in the second quarter.
Ili got some support in the second half from import Edgar Sosa who finished with 19 points including two three pointers in the final 90 seconds of the third quarter to leave the score tied at 73-all heading into the final term.
In a game which saw both teams trading baskets right through the first half, the Bullets were able to snatch a one point half,-time lead led by their veterans Adam Gibson and Anthony Petrie who each chipped in with multiple second quarter buckets after import Travis Trice paced Brisbane in the first quarter with seven and ended the half with nine.
Petrie would finish the game with 14 and Gibson with 11, while Trice finished with 15 points and five assists.
In contrast import Stephen Holt picked up two quick fouls and played less than five minutes in the first half and failed to make an impact until late in the fourth quarter and finished with just five points and one assist, but also nabbed seven rebounds to his credit.
Bullets import forward Perrin Buford also had a quiet first half with just five points only to turn it on in the second half and finish with 18 points and seven rebounds before fouling out with just under five minutes left.
Buford's absence hurt the Bullets as New Zealand wrestled control in the game's latter stages.
While praising his team's efficient offence, Bullets coach Andrej Lemanis lamented his side's inability to maintain defensive intencity in a match which saw them blow a nine point lead in the third quarter to lose by five.
"Until we find an answer for our defence it's always going to be tough for us, we gave up another 101 points tonight," he said.
"The offence is fine, we are the most efficient offensive team in the league, we need to do something about getting our defence to stop leaking points."
Bullets big man Daniel Kickert who was serviceable in the second half with nine of his 15 points said it was disappointing his side was not able to hold onto or build on leads they had created.
"You work your ass off to get a nice little lead, and then it's wasted in a matter of seconds," he said.
"All the effort down one end, working hard to get good shots and taking high percentage shots, playing in the style that we want to play, you definitely notice when its getting rammed back down your throat."
Lemanis said he was still hopeful his team, who now hold a record of three losses and one win, can turn around their season in time to figure in the finals, starting with Saturday's clash on the Gold Coast against Melbourne United.
"There's a frustration in dropping the last two games because we were in winnable positions in both of them, the good news is, we were in winnable positions in both of them," he said.
"It's not like we need the stars and planets to align to suddenly have a chance of winning a game.
"We have got enough talent, we've got a team that's capable of being good in this league.
"If you take last season as an example, the ebbs and flows of the league, and it's so close and I think Wollongong (Illawarra) were two and five last year and they finished second or something and Adelaide were one and four and they finished top.
"It's there we've got to keep working and building, and find an answer, it's not far off, we're obviously a very talented offensive team, that's obvious, and if we can just find a way to get a little bit more grunt defensively at those key moments of the game we will be ok."