Bendigo Braves coach David Hogan lauded his team after its gallant 99-90 loss to the Nunawading Spectres in Saturday night's NBL1 championship game.

The eighth-seeded Braves stretched the Spectres right to the dying seconds, but came up just short.

"Not the result we were after, but one thing about this group is they never give up,'' a proud Hogan said.

"They fought right to the end and, as a coach, that's all you can ask."

Nunawading's depth and outstanding three-point shooting proved to be the difference between the two teams.

Ray Turner (24), Deonte Burton (24), Mathiang Muo (23) and Chris Hogan (15) scored 86 of the Braves' 90 points. Jake Lloyd was the only other Brave to score.

In contrast, Nunawading had six players score nine or more points and the Spectres went 13-24 from behind the three-point arc.

"Nunawading has a super deep roster where they bring two NBL quality players off the bench,'' David Hogan said.

"A team that deep is pretty tough to compete with, but our guys can hold their heads high from where we've come from."

The Braves started the championship game in sensational fashion.

With Turner, Burton and Mathiang Muo in brilliant form, the Braves jumped to a 33-19 lead at quarter-time.

Nunawading didn't panic. The Spectres lifted their defensive intensity and started to find their shooting rhythm.

The Spectres outscored the Braves 34-20 in the second term to level the scores at 53 at the main break.

It was a similar story in the third term. The Braves offence stalled and the Spectres made some big shots from the perimeter.

It took a Chris Hogan three on the buzzer to keep the Braves within 10 points at three quarter-time.

The Spectres threatened to blow the Braves out of the water in the early stages of the final term.

They extended their lead to as many as 14 before the Braves mounted a spirited comeback.

An 8-0 run cut the Spectres lead to just six points with 4:35 to play.

The Spectres steadied, but three-point bombs from Hogan and Muo saw the Braves get within three points with 1:43 remaining.

Nunawading didn't crumble under the pressure.

Four-straight points extended the lead to seven points with one minute remaining.

When it mattered most down the stretch the Braves couldn't get defensive stops and the Spectres made several key buckets to seal the title.

"We got off to an amazing start and shot the ball incredibly well,'' David Hogan said.

"We knew we were going to start missing a couple and they'd start making a few, but we didn't expect them to make more than 50 per cent of their threes and that's what got us in the end.

"We played to our scout. They had three players who normally shoot the ball at about 20 per cent from three and they went 3-3, 2-2 and 1-1.

"We played the percentages, but unfortunately it didn't go our way this time."

Hogan was confident the majority of the Braves' roster would return for the 2020 NBL1 season.

"Hopefully, we keep our core group,'' Hogan said.

"There might be a few guys come in and a few guys unavailable next year.

"To get to a grand final you have to be happy with the group, so hopefully we keep them together and have another tilt next year."

Have you signed up to the Bendigo Advertiser's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in central Victoria.