The Border club once again shot themselves in the foot with a horrendous, error-filled opening term against the Nunawading Lady Spectres at the Lauren Jackson Sports Centre on Saturday night.

And while there was considerable improvement in the second half, the damage had been done in an eventual 98-64 defeat, the Lady Bandits’ 20th straight loss.

Lady Bandits coach James Ballinger admitted his team didn’t have the talent to hand a playoff team like Nunawading a 30-10 quarter-time advantage.

“You can’t give teams a start like that, we’ve said it numerous times,” Ballinger said.

“Good teams are hard enough to beat without beating yourselves.

“Giving up so many turnovers and offensive rebounds means we were playing defence for like a minute at a time and you just can’t do that, it’s not sustainable.

“The first quarter in particular, and in bad spots, consecutively; I didn’t mind the turnovers where we had a positive intent to go to the rim. But we gave up 10 offensive boards and had 10 turnovers and gave them a running start.”

The Lady Spooks were led by Rebecca Cole’s 30 points, with former Wangaratta junior Hanna Zavecz providing great support with 17 points and nine rebounds.

US import Emilee Harmon again paced the Lady Bandits’ scoring with 23 points, while Lauren Angel, Montana Farrah-Seaton and Sophie Kleeman all chimed in with 10 points apiece.

“This hasn’t been a staple of ours — we came out in the second half and had a crack,” Ballinger said.

“We had positive intent, outscored only 46-37 so at least we didn’t drop our heads.

“We had a go, that was pleasing and that will be the positive thing we can take to next week.”