Once again, the Border club showed plenty of signs it could compete with the best teams in the SEABL but ended up with absolutely nothing to show for their efforts as a full 40-minute performance continued to elude them.

On Saturday night the Bandits gave Sandringham a first-half scare at the Albury Sports Stadium before the Sabres picked up the pace to record a 112-95 win.

The Bandits’ nemesis, the third quarter, came back to haunt the Border club as a hard-won nine-point half-time lead vanished in a mire of rushed shots and poor defensive rotations.

Their misery was further compounded yesterday when they travelled to the Knox Converse Stadium and headed back up the Hume Highway with a 93-79 loss, their 12th straight defeat.

Gallaway said there were signs in both games of what the Bandits were capable of but admitted the Border club’s inability to focus for all four quarters was “extremely frustrating”.

“Both games were very similar, the third quarters we fell apart a bit,” Gallaway said.

“I’m probably more frustrated than anything. We look great for portions of most games and we compete well with the best teams in the league but we have a few little lapses here and there and they cost us games.

“The Sandy game was a perfect example of that. We can’t seem to continue the great first-half form and that’s the frustrating part.”

On Saturday, the Bandits had no answers in the second half to a balanced Sabres attack led by the imposing front line of Tom Garlepp (28 points), Simon Conn (25) and Daniel Dillon (25), quarterbacked superbly by NBL playmaker Nathan Crosswell, who finished with just eight points but dished out a remarkable 17 assists.

The Border club was led by import forwards Travis Gabbidon (23) and Ryan Bright (22), with Dan Briglia adding 17 points in a lion-hearted display against the bigger Conn.

Gabbidon continued his solid performance yesterday with 23 points against the Raiders as the Bandits battled back from 23 points down in the third-quarter to close within nine points with three minutes left.

But Knox closed the game out thanks to imports CJ Massingale (30 points) and Lester Strong (11 points, 10 rebounds), as well as former NBL players John Philip (16 points) and Mick Hill (10 points).

Bandits captain Nick Payne bounced back from a subdued performance against Sandringham with 18 points and 11 boards yesterday but Bright and Briglia were both well held to 11 points apiece.