BENDIGO Lady Braves coach Jonathon Goodman has tagged Sunday's one-point loss to the Nunwading Spectres as an "opportunity lost" for his young side.
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The Lady Braves missed a chance to extend their record to a perfect 4-0 with a 60-59 loss on Sunday.
It came 18 hours after the team easily accounted for the Albury-Wodonga Lady Bandits 73-48.
Goodman said he felt the Lady Braves had control for the bulk of the game against Nunawading, save for the third quarter when they were outscored 21-11.
"We had the last three shots to ultimately win the game," he said.
"It didn't all come down to those possessions, there were some fundamental errors that cost us.
"But we should never have really been in that situation."
There was still plenty of positives for the Lady Braves (3-1), who sit second on the SEABL south conference ladder behind the Dandenong Rangers (4-1).
Chloe Bibby had a big game with 18 points and 10 rebounds, while Carlie Smith finished with 13 points and seven rebounds to add to her team-high 16 points against Albury-Wodonga.
Goodman was just impressed with the continued contributions from his youngest players.
The Lady Braves had Jess Rennie, Maddie Sexton, Hayley Harrington and Ahlise Hurst all under 18 in the line-up for the win over the Lady Bandits.
"Their contribution has been fantastic, they are quickly turning into junior women players and playing against some of the best players in the country," he said.
"They all have bright futures ahead of them."
While he is sure his team has plenty of improvement left, Goodman said 3-1 was still a good place to be ahead of a pair of games next weekend against the Basketball Australia Centre of Excellence (home) and Ballarat Rush (away).
The COE leads the east conference at 3-0, while the Rush have had a slow start to the season, losing the only two games they have played.
"We need to be able to execute and do the one per centers, which at the moment we are not," he said.
"In the wins that we have had, we've spoken about that, and it hasn't happened at times and that showed up on Sunday.
“But we learned a lot on Sunday.
“The whole group thinks we should be 4-0 and they are disappointed that we’re not and that’s going to reflect this week at practice.”