An under-strength Tauranga City Mariners side suffered their first defeat in the SAS Sports CBL season when they lost 81-75 to the Hawke's Bay Development side in Napier on Saturday.
Due to many reasons, including a graduation, work commitments and a player's wife giving birth, the Mariners were able to take only seven players on the tough away trip to take on a full-strength roster of 11 Development Hawks.
A week earlier the Mariners had beaten the HB side 104-59 at Tauranga's QEII Stadium.
Mariners coach Neil Fullerton said missing key players made it particularly tough to win, especially nearing the end of the game.
"We were chasing the game at that stage. We were 11 points down with about two-and-a-half minutes to go, and while we pulled it back to four points at one stage with 30 seconds to go, the guys were a little bit tired at that stage. We were missing our three point guards in Ross Taurima, Jaden Bezzant and Mike Rodriguez.