Following on from Friday’s 105-69 mauling at the hands of Bendigo, the Border outfit slumped to 0-2 following a 61-52 defeat at the Nunawading Stadium on Saturday night.

But it was a vastly different defeat to the season-opening loss to the Lady Braves, with a committed defensive effort after quarter-time.

A slow start once again had all the hallmarks of another blowout, as the Lady Bandits trailed 24-11 after the first quarter.

But to their credit, the Border club knuckled down and outscored their more-fancied hosts 41-37 the rest of the way.

Lady Bandits forward Teyla Evans said the team did a much better job of defensive communication against Nunawading after such a poor effort the previous night.

“Definitely, I think we figured out what we had wrong,” Evans said.

“We didn’t recognise the shooters against Bendigo and that let us down.

“But we were so much better against Nunawading, it made a big difference.”

Albury-Wodonga imports Ali Bouman and Kristina Baltic led the way with 14 and 12 points respectively, each also hauling down seven rebounds.

But a lack of scoring options again hurt, with no other player approaching double-digits, 

And the Lady Bandits simply had no answer to WNBL star Rebecca Cole, who exploded for 37 points and nine boards.

Such was her dominance, no other Spectres player would score more than six points.

“Really tough to stop her,” Evans said.

“Just our decisions offensively cost us, we had too many turnovers.

“But going from a 36-point defeat and coming back to only lose by nine gives us a lot of encouragement for the next few weeks.”