A sloppy final quarter saw Hawke's Bay record their first loss in the National Basketball League tonight.
"We became very stagnant," Taylor Hawks head coach Zico Coronel said after his team's 93-85 loss to Cigna Saints in Wellington's TSB Stadium.
"We had advantages and we did a good job of exploiting some of them. They made adjustments and we got too stagnant. We are still learning and we will improve when we exploit better and display better movement ... our players are still learning when to play the right shots and put the right players in the right positions."
Coronel agreed Tall Blacks point guard Shea Ili was superb in the final quarter for the hosts on the way to finishing the match with 26 points, six rebounds and eight assists.
"At times we did a good job on him. It was still less than he has been scoring."
"This was one of those games we should have won and lost. Last weekend we won against Taranaki when we should have lost."